“I went up in the air and I came straight down to the ground,” Potter mentioned. “The discomfort was excruciating.”

Potter, who was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 48, had been taking the well-liked osteoporosis drug Fosamax for eight years just before her femur literally snapped in two.

Fosamax, a single in a class of drugs referred to as bisphosphonates, is supposed to make bones stronger. But now there is mounting evidence that for some ladies, taking Fosamax or its generic alendronate for more than 5 years could cause spontaneous fractures.

“We are seeing individuals just walking, walking down the actions, patients who are doing low-power exercise,” stated Dr. Kenneth Egol, professor of orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center. “Quite unusual, the femur is one particular of the strongest bones in the body.”

Egol stated X-rays of some of his patients look far more like an injury endured by a vehicle accident than an otherwise minimal fall.

“Over the final 18 months we are seeing this more frequently,” he said.

Sue Heller, 60, of Castle Rock, Colo., had been on Fosamax for nearly 10 years. She broke each of her femur bones.

“I’m sure there are a lot of women who have brittle bones correct now that perhaps are ready to break, and they are not aware of it,” stated Heller. “And my heart aches for them.”

Sales of the popular drug elevated when doctors began prescribing it not only to women showing signs of osteoporosis, but also those who had been osteopenic, and therefore, at threat for the illness. Now some physicians be concerned that staying on the drug for a lot more than 5 years can cause some women’s bones to turn out to be much more brittle.

Weighing the Dangers

This is not the very first time that several physicians have reported an opposite effect for a lot of individuals taking the drug. Fosamax has already been linked to serious musculoskeletal discomfort, as well as to a significant bone-associated jaw disease known as osteonecrosis.

“In globally post-advertising and marketing encounter with FOSAMAX/FOSAMAX Plus D, rare reports consistent with osteonecrosis of the jaw have been received. Several of these reports lack adequate clinical particulars to make definitive assessments and/or are confounded, specifically given that a normally accepted definition of ONJ in the common population is unknown,” responded Merck in a written response to the recommended link. “Rare cases of ONJ have also been reported in patients who do not have osteoporosis and who have not taken any bisphosphonate medicines.”

In 2008, the Food and Drug Administration reached out to the pharmaceutical organization Merck about the reports of femur fractures. Soon after 16 months, Merck added patients’ reports of femur fractures to the list of doable side effects reported by patients included in the drug’s package insert.

“It took Merck an entire year to respond,” stated ABC News senior wellness and medical editor, Dr. Richard Besser. “Just six words: ‘low energy femoral shaft and subtrochanteric fractures.’”

The FDA has also never made an effort to inform the public or doctors across the country who prescribe bisphosphonates of the achievable side impact, stated Besser.

Both the FDA and Merck declined ABC News’ request for an interview. The FDA stated they are seeking into reports of fractures.

“Nothing at all is much more essential to Merck than the safety of its medicines,” according to a written statement by Merck to ABC News. A causal relationship among Fosamax and these fractures has not been established, according to Merck.

“The drug businesses have to recognize when there is an issue, they have to be up front with the public. If there is a concern, they have to voice it and at least give everybody a fair possibility to look at this carefully,” said Dr. Joseph Lane, orthopedic trauma surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

How A lot for How Extended

Several research recommend an overall benefit from taking the medication for girls who are at risk for osteoperosis. In fact, bisphosphonates can help prevent hip and spine fractures, which for a lot of girls could lead to death.

“Usually your bone is constantly being remade,” stated Dr. Joseph Lane, chief of metabolic bone disease at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. “These patients don’t remake their bone and they acquire damage, microdamage, the collagen gets altered and we need to have to rejuvenate the skeleton.”

In 2008, bisphosphonate sales exceeded $3.five billion according to information from IMS Health. In 2008, over 37 million prescriptions had been written for the osteoporosis medications.

Although some physicians use bone density scans to help drive their choices, physicians usually prescribe them to girls who are at an increased risk for either osteoporosis or fractures from osteoporosis they already have. A new tool developed by the Globe Health Organization can figure out the danger of having fractures and can aid doctors figure out which ladies with osteoporosis ought to be treated with medicines.

Although bisphosphonates are generally advised for postmenopausal females, analysis does not indicate how lengthy females really should be on the drug. A lot of doctors now recommend a five-year limit.

“When they are on it for five, six, seven or eight years, they lost their capability to remodel and regenerate their skeleton,” said Lane. “[Some women] are extremely vulnerable and they will then create problems of brittle bone.”

Additional time on the medication depends on doctors’ orders, stated Besser.

If you have taken Fosamax you should find out whether you are at risk of suffering a fosamax femur fracture