Abstract
Background: Menopause is one of the steps in women’s life which accompany with a lot of problems Which the most common of is osteoporosis. This study was designed to assess the comparative effects on osteoporosis of tibolone in postmenopausal healthy women. Tibolone is a synthetic steroid with estrogenic, progestogenic and androgenic properties.
Methods: Eighty seven women aged 45-64 years were randomly assigned to two groups: 49 women received 2/5 mg tibolone plus Calcium-D daily and 38 other received only Calcium-D daily. At baseline and 6 months of treatment we measured bone turn-over marker (serum ALP and urinary Ca/Cr ratio). Bone mineral density was measured in the spine and neck of femur by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) at baseline and 9 months of treatment.
Findings: Serum ALP decreased and urinary Ca/Cr ratio also increased significantly in those taking tibolone. Also, T-score, Z-score and BMD increased significantly in the spine and femur in those taking tibolone. No sig-nificant change in the T-score, Z-score and BMD of the either spine or the femur was observed in the control group. Also, there was no significant change in serum ALP and urinary Ca/Cr ratio in them. A significant differ-ence in the increase of T-score, Z-score and BMD of the spine and femur between the different treatment groups was observed in favor of those taking tibolone compared to women who received only Calcium-D. Also, there was a significant difference in the increase of urinary Ca/Cr ratio and decrease in serum ALP in tibolone group to Calcium-D one.
Conclusion: Tibolone has beneficial effects on bone mineral density and bone turnover markers.
Keywords: Tibolone, Bone densitometry, Bone turnover markers, Menopause