Long-term bone mineral density (BMD) or fracture incidence changes after withdrawal of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) are not well known.
To study long-term postmenopausal bone loss and incidence of wrist fracture in respect to duration and withdrawal of self-reported HT.
A 15-year follow-up of the population-based prospective OSTPRE cohort in Kuopio, Finland.
Women (mean baseline age 53.4 years, range 48.1-59.6) were divided into four groups based on duration of HT: (1) never users (non-HT); (2) those who had used HT only throughout the 1st 5-year period (HT5); (3) throughout the first 10-years (HT10); (4) those who used HT throughout the entire 15-year follow-up (HT15).
Femoral (n=857) and spinal (n=599) BMD measurements with dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were carried out at 5-year intervals in 1989-2004. Wrist fracture incidence in 1989-2004 was studied in a population of 5119 women.
The adjusted spinal BMD (L2-L4) changes by HT use during the entire 15-year follow-up were -4.8% for non-HT (p0.05) and +3.2% for HT15 (p0.05) groups. Comparing to non-HT group the risk of wrist fracture was reduced by 33% (p=0.045) in HT10 group and by 63% (p