Thursday, December 16, 2010
Brief history. I'm 54 year old female, Surgical menopause at 39, dignosed osteoporosis at 47, experienced reflux with oral drugs. I just finished my 1st month of Forteo. Endo took urine and blood labs prior to start of Forteo and then repeated these labs after 3 weeks on Forteo. My urine calcium doubled during these 3 weeks of Forteo from 260 to 500. Dr. is now recommending to skip a month of Forteo and then start up again taking it every other month. I understand the side effect is increased urine calcium. Have others experienced urine calcium going this high in just a few weeks and how did dr. treat it?
Hi Joan, welcome...I never had this particular problem with Forteo, but it can cause elevated serum calcium (Ca), so I would say your Dr. is on the right track. Have the necessary tests and follow the recommendations he/she suggests. Did you skip the dose of Forteo before the 24 hour collection? I'm not suggesting you do this unless your Dr. tells you to, but I had to wait until my blood was drawn for Ca testing, before I took the days injection.
My serum Ca was elevated while on Forteo, but I continued with the med because I was able to decrease my intake of supplemental Ca and foods containing Ca. I did not have a problem with too much urine Ca, so am not sure the treatment would be exactly the same.
If you'd like to read more about this, here's a link to the Cleveland Clinic on Forteo where they discuss serum (blood) Ca levels (see page 4 paragraph 5 & 6). I don't see urinary Ca elevation mentioned, so keep in mind that what is recommeded in this paper is for lowering blood levels of Ca.
Good luck and let us know how you do.
Thanks for the information Pam. My serum CA was slightly elevated but dr. thinks it is due to my taking the injection about 1 hour prior to blood drawn while forteo was circulating in my system. Dr. didn't tell me to wait until after blood draw, but next time I will. But the urine was a 24 hour collection that would NOT have had forteo circulating the entire time. Like you, I can only find information on high serum CA. Dr. did mention if a level of 500 CA remains, kidney formations/stones could develop. That is her reason for giving me a month break and then start up on Forteo every other month so my kidneys will get a rest. At least she will be following up with labs. When I read some of these message boards I find so many aren't being followed closely with labs.