My mom was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis 7 months back. She is 67 years old and is in India. The doctor (Doctor 1) advised her to take forteo. Since this is the first osteoporosis medication she has taken it is difficult to know if this medication is effective or not. Few months later she had frozen shoulder and was operated with Key hole surgery to treat the frozen shoulder. This surgery was done by a shoulder specialist (Doctor 2). She was referred to this doctor by Doctor 1. The shoulder specialist now says to stop Forteo and continue with continue with the calcium and Vitamin D medications as in his opinion Forteo is useless where as doctor 1 says that we should continue treatment for 1 year and then stop. My mom is completely confused as what to do. Can anybody please give their thoughts to me.
Thanks so much for sharing your excellent questions with us! It is sometimes quite difficult to know what the best course of action to treat low bone might might be, and the task becomes even harder when different doctors are saying different things. As your mother discusses these issues with her physicians, these are important things for her to keep in mind:
Forteo is a very powerful medication and not all patients are good candidates for it. (Scroll down on http://www.forteo.com/ to see who should NOT take it.) Is Doctor 2 recommending she not take it because your mother has a condition with which Forteo is contraindicated, and which Doctor 1 overlooked? If so that is a serious matter, quite different from a separate issue of whether this particular medication is the most effective for her specific condition.
The latest research does indicate that Forteo can help increase bone mass considerably in eligible patients. But a doctor may also consider other prescription medications, such as bisphosphonates, or non-prescription calcium regimens, instead. When you say your mother has "severe" osteoporosis, I assume this is this based on the T-score from a DXA scan? Your mother may want to ensure she has received this vital scan and has the exact numbers readily available to discuss her with her treating physician(s), so that they can render their medical opinions with the most inforrmation possible.
At the end of the day, it is a judgment call on the part of a patient and a medical professional on the potential risks vs. benefits of one course of treatment compared to another. Best wishes as you help your mother navigate this tough issue.