Cost analysis of osteoporosis related to untreated menopause.

Menopausal osteoporosis has many consequences for women over 50. Its complications incur high treatment costs both for society and the patients themselves. Collection of the epidemiological data required for a cost analysis of menopause-related osteoporosis is not easy, but we have calculated the direct (i.e. purely medical) costs as follows: hip fractures: approximate number per annum in women over 50: 55,000, minimum hospital costs (treatment and rehabilitation): 3.5 bn FF; forearm fractures: approximate number per annum: 35,000, cost of out-patient treatment: 200 m FF; vertebral fractures: common, but generally unrecorded: estimated number 40,000-65,000 cost: unevaluated. The relative benefit of hormone therapy versus nontreatment may be used to calculate the cost of osteoporosis due to non treated menopause. In France, where currently only 5% women over 50 are treated, this cost is 2.2 bn FF. If 50% of women were treated, the savings from hormone therapy (in terms of osteoporosis treatment costs) could be 1.2 bn FF, a figure which must be weighed against a cost analysis of oestrogen therapy.