Osteoporosis

Diagnosing Osteoporosis

Your GP may be able to diagnose osteoporosis. This would be through a combination of symptoms and risk factors (such as family history, other diseases and certain medications). Your GP may recommend treatment without need for further investigation. When your GP decides if you need treatment to reduce your risk of a fracture, they are moving towards using “fracture risk assessment” rather than simply diagnosing osteoporosis. For this they use a fracture risk assessment tool called FRAX™. Measurement of bone density may form part of this assessment but may not always be necessary.

If further measurements of your bone density are needed, your GP will refer you for a DXA scan to facilitate diagnosis.

How can you tell if I have osteoporosis? 

The best test to identify osteoporosis is a Bone Mineral Density (BMD) measurement using a DXA scan. We usually measure the lower spine and one hip. A DXA scan measures the density of the bone. This tells us about the strength of the bones and the risk of breaking bones in the future.