Osteoporosis

I am interested in knowing if anyone else recently (Oct 2008) started injecting Forteo. I just began after about 18 mo. of denial about my osteo. Could not tolerate Fosomax at all.
The drug costs $800 per month and I had to change my deductible to afford it, but feel it will be worth the cost. Has anyone else used this for 18mo-24 mo and if so, what were the results? My doctor said that once done w/Forteo, I will have to use Reclast (once a year infusion at doctor's office) Thanks, Sara

Hi Sara: I took forteo for 2 years, and did really well on it. I didn't have any side effects. At one point they thought I had elevated Ca from it, but I had slightly elevated Ca before I started and still have a slightly elevated count since I finished foteo last June, so it can't be blamed on forteo.

Are you having any trouble with the injections or side effects? I got used to doing the injection really fast, since it was so simple compared to an im injection like what you would take for B12 shots. Since the needle is so small I really didn't notice it much.

The good news is I went from a -3.6 (spine) to -0.9 (spine) which is NORMAL BMD and -1.6 hip Osteopenia. When I had my first scan they only measured my spine so that's why I started out with only one score and then the following dxa's I had both hip/spine done and my numbers are above.

My Drs were thrilled at the improvement, and now I'm on Evista. I also haven't had any new frax's where I had 6 previous to starting forteo.

I hope forteo works as well for you as it has for me. If I could take it longer than 24 months I would, but they won't let me. Maybe that thinking will change in the future, so we could have a second 24 mo tx. However my scores are so good they wouldn't warrant forteo anyway.


Good luck if you have any more questions just ask.

Pam