Stay in Touch
Get sneak previews of special offers & upcoming events delivered to your inbox.
Sign in
01-20-2014 03:48 PM
01-20-2014 03:49 PM
01-20-2014 03:55 PM
01-20-2014 04:11 PM
My sister in law gave herself the injections for 2 years. Her physician recommended this option to her because he wasn't comfortable with bisphosphonates (Boniva etc). We just talked about this around the Christmas holiday. She said she had no strange side effects.
01-20-2014 04:42 PM
This was recommended to me after my back procedure in August. The pharmaceutical rep kept calling me to set up a date for instruction on how to administer it. I kept saying I wasn't sure i was going to take it and she kept calling for weeks. I finally made up my mind from a thread on this BB that I wasn't going to risk it at my age. I told her no.
One can only take the drug for two years because of the risk of getting bone cancer. If it helps with the numbers, the best it can do is 9% improvement. 9%, not 90%. After you must come off it, it then goes back down to the former levels, it isn't even permanent. The side effects can be extremely serious.
The other issue is the cost of the med . . . in the thousands, even though they say the pharmaceutical company will "help" with the cost.
At my age it is not worth it. Someone younger, perhaps. If I even live two more years, I don't want to be on a toxic med like that near the end of my life.
01-23-2014 08:28 PM
There is a risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) as a side effect of this drug. Link to the FDA medication guide for this drug at the bottom of this post.
You can only take the drug for 2 years. As soon as the drug is stopped, your own bone cells take down the "bone mass" which was gained while taking this drug.
With any drug, you need to consider the risks of the drug against it's benefits. Taking this drug seems like a lose/lose situation to me. But that's my personal opinion.
Read the medication guide and if you find that you can't live with the side effects, talk to your doctor about it.
Snippet of FDA medication guide:
What is the most important information I should know about FORTEO?
01-29-2014 03:08 PM
The nightmare continues for me with this drug. I had the kyphoplasty back procedure on my spine during the first week of August 2013. It is now almost February 2014 . . . SIX months later. Not only do I continue to have severe back problems (I have had nine other fractures, with no procedure, which fractures took one-third the time to heal). However, to add insult to injury, I can't seem to get this radiologist (who performed the kyphoplasty) to drop the Forteo prescription!! I said "no," very emphatically months ago and I still received phone calls from the pharmaceutical company rep who wanted to come to my apartment and show me how to use this drug. I must have told her "no" at least five times. I finally stopped hearing from her. I thought it was over.
Yesterday I received a letter from my Part D drug provider that they had received a request to pay for this drug for me. They said they would send me a "partial supply" but warned that they do not cover this drug and would not pay for it in the future, and in the meantime its cost would be added to my schedule. (Price, BTW, $1760 PER INFUSION, which $100 less than my total monthly SS income!!) When I advised them I do not want the drug, never wanted the drug and never will, they told me to contact the prescribing doctor or the pharmacy and advise them not to fill the prescription. They gave me the number to call.
I called the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Albany, NY (I live in the Philly suburbs) and after at least an hour of "holding" and getting no response to ringing phones, I finally was able to talk to someone. She said she would advise the proper department to take me off the schedule to receive this drug, and would also contact the prescribing physician that i do not want to take the drug. I breathed a sigh of relief.
This morning I received an electronic call from Albany that they were ready to mail this prescription to me. I had to call the NY facility again and am still waiting to hear back from them that this is some kind of mistake!
All I know is that there must be a really big kickback to the prescribing physician for this drug, or the process is so confusing that once it starts it can't be stopped!!
01-29-2014 03:14 PM
interested in this
Get sneak previews of special offers & upcoming events delivered to your inbox.
*You're signing up to receive QVC promotional email.
Find recent orders, do a return or exchange, create a Wish List & more.
Privacy StatementGeneral Terms of Use
QVC is not responsible for the availability, content, security, policies, or practices of the above referenced third-party linked sites nor liable for statements, claims, opinions, or representations contained therein. QVC's Privacy Statement does not apply to these third-party web sites.
© 1995-2025 QVC, Inc. All rights reserved. | QVC, Q and the Q logo are registered service marks of ER Marks, Inc. 888-345-5788