Osteopenia and Menopause Bone Loss: What Every Woman Over 40 Needs to Know
I was not looking for information about my bones.
I was deep in research on strength training, trying to understand muscle, metabolism, and how to keep my body strong through this season. Then a word kept showing up that I had never paid much attention to before. Osteopenia. It appeared in study after study alongside perimenopause, estrogen decline, and fracture risk. I finally stopped and looked it up, and what I found was something I wish someone had told me years earlier.
October is Menopause Awareness Month, and World Menopause Day falls on October 18th. This year the International Menopause Society chose chronic pain at midlife as its official theme, putting bone health right at the center of the global conversation. This blog is my contribution to that conversation.
Before we get into it, I put together a free 7-day guide for women navigating this season. It lives at free.debrajjeanwellness.com. More on that at the end.
"She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong." Proverbs 31:17
Building strong bones is stewardship. It is the work of tending the foundation that carries you through every season ahead.
Let us get into it.
Most Women Have Never Heard Of Osteopenia
That word that kept appearing in my research has a definition worth knowing. Osteopenia is the stage before osteoporosis, where bone density has started to decline but has not yet reached the level of full bone disease. It is the window where intervention matters most.
According to the 2026 Osteoboost State of Bones Report, which surveyed over 1,000 women aged 45 and older in the United States, 57 percent of women have never heard of it. More than a third have no idea that menopause and bone loss are even connected. Half have never had a DEXA scan. The gap is widest among women aged 55 to 59, when bone loss accelerates fastest, with 74.5 percent never having heard of osteopenia. Most women are moving through the most critical season for bone health without knowing it.
Menopause Bone Loss: What It Does To Your Bones
Estrogen plays a direct role in your bone health. It regulates the process by which your body builds new bone and slows the natural breakdown of existing bone. When estrogen is present and stable, bone remodeling stays in balance. When estrogen declines, bone breaks down faster than it is rebuilt, and density begins to drop.
According to the Endocrine Society and the Cleveland Clinic, women can lose up to 20 percent of their bone density in the first five to seven years after menopause. The Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that 1 in 2 women over age 50 will break a bone in her lifetime due to osteoporosis.
Those are not abstract statistics. That is your hip. Your wrist. Your spine. A fracture at 65 or 70 that changes your independence and your quality of life in ways you cannot undo.
The years around menopause, roughly 45 to 59, are when bone loss accelerates fastest. They are also when awareness is lowest. My hope is that this blog will close the gap.
Osteopenia vs Osteoporosis: What Is the Difference
Both describe reduced bone density but at different points on the same spectrum.
Osteopenia is the earlier stage, where density has dropped below normal but has not yet reached the level of full bone disease. More than half of postmenopausal women in the United States are already here according to UT Southwestern Medical Center research, and most of them have no idea. Osteoporosis is further along, where bones become brittle enough that fractures can happen from minor falls or everyday movement. The earlier you know where you stand, the more you can do about it.
The Most Powerful Tool You Already Have Access To
Here is the part that really surprised me when I was doing my research, because the answer was sitting right inside the topic I was already studying.
Strength training builds and preserves bone density. When you lift weights, your muscles pull on your bones and that mechanical stress signals your body to build more bone. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, covering studies through March 2025, confirmed that resistance training has a statistically significant impact on bone mineral density at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip in postmenopausal women.
The same research that kept pointing me toward strength training for muscle, for metabolism, for managing perimenopause symptoms, was also pointing toward bone. These things are not separate. They are the same conversation, and lifting is at the center of all of it.
I write about strength training across several of my blogs because it keeps showing up as the answer. Bone health is one more reason why.
What Else Supports Your Bones In This Season
Calcium and vitamin D. These two work together and you need both. The Endocrine Society recommends 1,200 mg of calcium daily for postmenopausal women and 800 IU of vitamin D daily. Most women are not getting enough of either. Bring this to your physician and ask about your current levels.
Protein. Bone is made of collagen and mineral, and collagen is a protein. Adequate daily protein supports both muscle and bone tissue. This is the same reason protein shows up across every perimenopause conversation, it is the raw material your body needs to maintain itself.
Weight-bearing movement. Walking, hiking, dancing, anything where you are moving against gravity, stimulates bone-building signals. It works alongside strength training and is accessible to almost every woman regardless of where she is starting.
Ask about a DEXA scan. This is the standard tool for measuring bone density and it is how osteopenia and osteoporosis are diagnosed. Many women have never had one. The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that all women over 65 get screened, and that women under 65 who are postmenopausal with risk factors get screened earlier. If you are in perimenopause and have concerns, bring it up with your doctor. Knowing your baseline is the starting point for everything else.
The Conversation Most Women Are Having Too Late
Osteoporosis does not hurt. It has no symptoms until something breaks. By the time a woman finds out she has it, she has often already lost significant bone mass that could have been preserved.
You are reading this in October, Menopause Awareness Month, and World Menopause Day falls on October 18th. This year's theme, chronic pain at midlife, is a direct invitation to take bone health seriously before it becomes the kind of pain that changes your life.
She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong. This is part of how.
Your bones are worth tending. They are carrying you through every season.
Have you ever heard of osteopenia before today? Have you had a DEXA scan? Drop a comment below or reply to this email. I read every one and I will reply back. Your question might be exactly what another woman needs to see answered today.
The Bigger Picture
If you want a full roadmap for supporting your bones, your hormones, your metabolism, and your overall health through this transition, The Menopause Blueprint walks through all of it. The Menopause Blueprint is my own product and is not a substitute for care from your physician. Any supplements should be discussed with your doctor before starting. You can find it at stan.store/debrajjean.
If you want to start building your personal picture of what is driving your symptoms, Tend to Your Temple is a free 7-day guide that helps you trace your patterns back to their source. You can find it at free.debrajjeanwellness.com.
Come join me in The Reset, my monthly newsletter for women walking faith, fitness, and midlife with God at the center. Sign up at newsletter.debrajjeanwellness.com.
If you know a woman who has never heard of osteopenia, send her this. The kindest thing we can do for the women we love is give them the information that could change everything.
Everything you need lives at debrajjeanwellness.com.
Your body is a temple worth understanding. Let me help you learn its language.
-Debrajjean
This post is written from personal experience and research, and it is meant for education and encouragement, not as medical advice. I am not a doctor, and nothing here is a substitute for care from your own physician. Please bring your questions, your numbers, and any concerns to a provider who knows your full health story.
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