By

Hallie Levine,

Like many other health screenings, scans that check for osteoporosis, a disease marked by weak and brittle bones, fell by the wayside during the pandemic, according to a 2021 study published

in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. But the condition itself doesn’t take any time off.

Some of these fractures can be life-altering, even deadly. About a quarter of hip fracture patients end up in nursing homes, and 24 percent of hip fracture patients 50 and over die within a

year after the fracture. 

But there’s an easy way to figure out if you’re at risk for an osteoporosis-related fracture: have a bone density test, which measures how strong your bones are, says Robert Adler, M.D., an

endocrinologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

The answer depends on your gender, Adler says. Age is also an important factor.

For women:

Groups like the United States Preventative Services Task Force, the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation and the North American Menopause Society all recommend osteoporosis screening for

postmenopausal women who are 65 or older. But you may need to get that first scan earlier if you have any of the following risk factors.

medications like prednisoneYou’re underweightYou have rheumatoid arthritisYou’ve had a nontraumatic bone fracture (you’ve broken a bone after you fell from less than standing height)You

regularly have at least three alcoholic drinks a dayYou have a chronic condition such as diabetes, thyroid disease or liver disease, or you went through early menopause.

If you don’t check any of these boxes, there’s no need to get that initial screen earlier. “There’s almost a knee-jerk reflex among many providers to order a bone density scan [before age

65], since we do know that osteoporosis and fractures are more common after menopause,” Adler says. But there’s no evidence that it helps, he notes.