Men's Osteoporosis Support GroupMore on atypical femoral fracture In a recent Update I discussed a letter to the editor regarding 15 cases of atypical femoral fractures in women taking Fosamax (alendronate). There is also an article on this topic in the July 14th New York Times that you might want to read. It adds some details to my previous update, although it references the same authors who submitted the letter to the editor. Their final published article adds a few more cases, too. I suspect those were detected after the letter to the editor was written and submission or approval of the article for publication, but that is just a guess. There is also a link in the New York Times article to FRAX, the World Health Organization Risk Assessment Tool for 10-year fracture risk. This tool might be helpful if you are considering stopping Fosamax for a "drug holiday" and want to use those results to discuss your case with your care provider. If you have been on Fosamax long term and have improved bone mineral density (BMD) into the normal range, the literature is suggestive that up to five years off medications doesn't heighten fracture risk. Another option might be to take a lower dose of Fosamax as a maintenance dose if your care provider concurs. As I stated in the previous Update, there are only a limited number of these cases, and they are all in older women, to my knowledge. So I don't think we need to be frightened about this occurring in the average Fosamax user. But, don't hesitate to discuss this problem with your care provider to be sure you both feel you aren't in a high-risk group to develop this type fracture.
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