The short explanation
Both risks rise after menopause because oestrogen was doing protective work, and both respond to the same unglamorous things: weight-bearing movement, enough protein, enough calcium and vitamin D, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure and blood sugar in view. Strength work matters for bone more than walking does, and it is the part most often left out. Screening is not automatic. Whether you need a bone density scan or a cardiovascular risk assessment depends on your age, your history and your risk factors, and it is worth asking rather than assuming somebody is tracking it.
What depends on your situation
The parts of this that change from woman to woman. Uncertainty is stated, not hidden.
- Early menopause, a family history of hip fracture, long-term steroid use, a low body weight, smoking and certain conditions all raise bone risk and change what is recommended.
- Heart disease is the commonest cause of death in women in India and presents differently from the textbook picture more often than in men — which is a reason to take breathlessness and unusual fatigue to a clinician rather than dismissing them.
What this answer cannot determine
The boundary of online education. These need a clinician who can see you.
- This cannot tell you your own risk, whether you need screening, or whether you need treatment. Those depend on measurements and a history this page cannot see.
Questions for your clinician
Take these with you. You can add any of them to an appointment card.
- What is my cardiovascular risk, and should we calculate it?
- Do I need a bone density scan, and if not, when would I?
- Should my vitamin D or calcium be checked?
- What kind of exercise would you prioritise for me?
When to seek help
Clinician-approved guidance for this topic. When in doubt, being seen is never the wrong choice.
- Seek urgent care for chest pain or pressure, breathlessness at rest, pain spreading to jaw or arm, or sudden severe back pain after a minor fall — the last can be a spinal fracture.
Sources
The evidence this explanation is built on.
No sources recorded yet.
Who wrote and reviewed this
Every AskHer answer names its author. A clinically reviewed answer also names the clinician who signed it off — if no clinician is named below, it has not been clinically reviewed.
- Author
- AskHer Editorial AskHer's editorial team — not an individual clinician Works in English, தமிழ், हिन्दी
- Clinical reviewer
- Nobody yet No clinician has signed this answer off. That is what the “Editorially reviewed” badge means, and why it does not say “Clinically reviewed”. It was written and checked by AskHer’s editorial team, and it is queued for a clinician who works in this area. No sources are recorded against it yet.
- Review status
- Editorially reviewed
- Last reviewed
- Last reviewed 26 September 2026
- Version
- 1
Correction history
Substantive changes are listed, not quietly edited away.
No corrections have been made since this answer was first published.
Did this answer your question?
Whatever you choose is filed against this version of the answer, never against you, and it is never shown as a count.
“Explain more simply” asks you which part was hard to follow, so the author knows what to rewrite. “My question is different” opens a private follow-up with this answer attached.
Saving, following up and reporting are all private. Nothing you do on this page is visible to other readers or to the doctor who wrote it, unless you ask a question.