Standard hormone therapy is inadequate for bone density in premature ovarian insufficiency

To assess standard dose hormone therapy (HT) and bone mass in premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), 239 women with POI, 132 using standard estrogen dose HT and 107 women without HT, were evaluated. All underwent bone mineral density (BMD) evaluation in the lumbar spine (LS) and total femur (TF). Mean age, age at last period and body mass index (BMI) for the untreated and for the HT groups were 38.16.1 and 36.8 +/- 7.3 years; 31.4 +/- 7.3 and 30.7 +/- 7.2 years; 26.6 +/- 7.1 and 25.8 +/- 4.6kg/m(2), respectively, (p=NS). The women taking standard dose HT started treatment at the age of 33.8 +/- 6.3 years and had been on hormone treatment for 3 years at the time of the bone densitometry examination. The BMD in LS was 1.06 +/- 0.15 and 1.00 +/- 0.17g/cm(2) (p=0.003); the BMD in TF was 0.92 +/- 0.19 and 0.91 +/- 0.13g/cm(2) (p=0.039), respectively, for the untreated and HT groups. A 45% altered BMD (osteopenia/osteoporosis) in LS was verified in women without treatment and 60.1% in those using the standard dose TH (p=0.01). The BMD in TF was altered in 32.3% in those without HT and 36.4% in the HT users (p=0.34). In conclusion, standard dose HT was not adequate to reduce impaired bone mass in the spine and femur of women with POI.