Hi Cindy:  Great Question...  I have many friends who have done well on Fosamax, Boniva, Reclast, and Actonel.  I also talk to people I see at my Drs office, which is an Osteoporosis Clinic and Research Center, and there again I see more people benefitting from these drugs than those who don't. 

These drugs definitely have side effects, but there's no way to know if you'll be one of those that will experience them.  When the drug co's list the side effects they *have* to include every possible side effect seen in these large clinical trials, but if you read these, the precentage of those that see *some* bad side effects are around 2% of the group and the placebo group is about the same figure.  That's not to say these drugs don't have some bad side effect, they do, so if you are trying to decide whether to take them or not, you need to look at the listed side effects, realizing that some of them are unlikely, and look at the most common ones listed, like joint pain, gi probs, atrial fibrillation and ask yourself if you already have these types of problems anyway.  If you do, then the likelihood of the drug making it workse goes *up*. 

When I took Actonel I saw a .2% increase, which is considered good even though it sounds insignificant.  Because I already had many frax's, I switched to forteo and did really well with NO side effects, and improved from severe osteo--(-3.6)--to normal bmd in the (spine) and to osteopenia in the (hip).

Most of the people that come to these boards, do so because they are having a problem with treatments.  You don't hear from too many of us that are doing well, because we don't need advice or reassurance to justify our decision for treatment.

Sorry this is so long, but I find it discouraging that more people with good results don't post about it; when you see the numbers of people around the world who do well on them it gives you a different perspective.  I wish there was a way to say No you won't have any problems but life isn't like that.

I posted an article on Reclast that gives the unvarnished results if you want to read it.  It's located on the Home page under "Reclast: I'm Thinking About Taking it..."

Good Luck and do as much reading as you can, and ask the people you see at your Drs office how they are doing.  I find that most people are happy to share their story whether it's negative or positive.