seven years postmenopause, not on HRT. got a DEXA last fall that flagged osteopenia in my lumbar spine (L4/5, T-score around -1.5). not shocked, but there it was. picked back up barbell work this spring, consistent 3x/week, deadlifts and squats mostly. question: is one year of serious lifting enough to show measurable improvement on a repeat DEXA? or is that timeline too short to see real change in bone density? also wondering about lumbar vs femoral neck tracking. my lumbar was the weak point, femoral neck actually borderline. does focused lower-body strength work move the lumbar T-score, or is that more systemic (diet, hormones, time)? don’t want to throw money at a scan if the timeline is unrealistic. tbh but also want the data. what’s realistic?
Femoral neck is often the cleaner tracking signal here, worth considering because lumbar DEXA in someone seven years postmenopause can be confounded by degenerative changes at L4/5 that artificially inflate apparent BMD. fwiw A “better” lumbar T-score can reflect osteophytes more than true trabecular gain. The one-year timeline isn’t unrealistic, but I’d ask whether your DEXA report includes any artifact notation at L4/5 before treating that number as the primary endpoint.
edit: forgot to add
but my femoral’s borderline normal so lumbar tracking isn’t optional, artifacts or not. one year of heavy deadlifts might still move the needle. gonna get the repeat anyway; want the data even if it’s noisier.
Wanting the data even knowing it’s noisier is completely sensible, and if the radiologist’s report includes any comment on degenerative changes at L4/5 between this scan and the next, that comparison is worth flagging explicitly to whoever interprets it, because it gives context for how much of any T-score shift is trabecular versus structural. One year of consistent axial loading through deadlifts and squats is genuinely one of the better mechanical stimuli for lumbar trabecular bone, so the timeline isn’t unrealistic, the question is just whether the signal clears the noise at that site without HRT in the picture
edit: realized I said that wrong