Hi Todd,
Osteoporosis can be hereditary. My wife's mother and grandmother both broke bones because of osteoporosis. My wife discussed this with her doctor, who agreed to prescribe HRT the moment her periods stopped. Despite this, when she had a bone density scan a couple of years later it was discovered that my wife already had osteoporosis (she was only in her late 40s). Luckily she was able to start treatment (Fosomax) immediately, and before breaking anything. Her mother wasn't so lucky. HER doctor didn't do anything until after she fell on her butt and suffered several compression fractures to thorasic vertibrae. She now has a pronounced hump on her upper back.
Fosomax is a brand name for a drug called alendronic acid. My wife takes the once weekly version of Fosomax, her mother takes the monthly version. Alendronic acid is fairly caustic, and the tablet must be taken on an empty stomach, washed down with plenty of water. The patient must remain upright for the following half hour. This is to ensure that the tablet reaches the stomach and doesn't lodge in the oesophagus where it can burn it's way through the oesophagus wall. It is important not to eat anything or drink anything but water during that half hour either, as any trace of calcium in your stomach will reduce the effectiveness of the Fosomax. Some people cannot tolerate weekly Fosomax (I'm guessing they get anything from indigestion symptoms, heartburn, etc. through to ulcers) in which case the monthly version is used.
I'm not sure how it works (I'm sure you can find out by Googling for it) but alendronic acid (Fosomax, etc.) causes the body to increase bone density. Bones are made up from a 'honeycomb' or 'stiff spongiform' structure of calcified material. In a patient with osteoporosis, the very fine webs of bone material dissolve leaving larger and larger voids in the bones. If allowed to continue, more and more of the bone material dissolves until the bone can easily break. Alendronic acid causes the body to reverse the process by laying down new bone material. It won't replace any webs of bone that have completely dissolved, but those remaining will thicken and the bone is thus strengthened.
Don't fret mate. Osteoporosis doesn't mean that you'll have to stop your Androcur. Obviously any doctor will encourage you to stop because your low testosterone is increasing the problem. But if you really really want to stay on the Androcur, or even go ahead and have surgical castration, I believe that treatment with alendronic acid (Fosomax) or similar will protect you from further bone density loss.
When my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 she had to quit HRT immediately. Her oncologist put her on Tamoxifen to starve the cancer of eostrogen, then she had surgery to remove the breast tumor [which turned out to be a cluster of tumors - nasty] followed by chemo threapy (FEC) and radiotherapy. She was then to stay on Tamoxifen indefinitely in order to keep her oestrogen suppressed. Despite this, her endocrinologist was confident that Fosomax would be able to keep the osteoporosis at bay. Since then my wife developed inflammatory breast cancer on the remaining breast and had to undergo a second mastectomy/lymph node removal (filleting we call it!) plus an even nastier chemotherapy (Taxotere) and Herceptin. Her anti oestrogen treatment has been switched from Tamoxofen to Arimidex (anastrozole) which seems to be even more effective at causing her sex hormones to 'flat line'. Not great for our sex life, but hey ho - there isn't much about breast cancer that is! At least she's still alive! The Herceptin and Arimidex treatments continue indefinitely. So far (18 months on) her tumor markers in her blood tests have been in the 'normal' range. But the last couple of blood tests show tumor markers increasing - so my wife is seeing the oncologist this afternoon to ask him if he's worried about this, yet.
So, Todd, if you want to ask my wife about her experience with her osteoporosis treatment, and or hormone suppression, or anything else (ie. living with a husband who seems to want to join her in her hormone suppressed state), please feel free to ask her any questions through this thread or by a pm to me. But for now I'll just say again:
Don't fret mate
. It was a good day despite how tired I was.