Your weight is the same.
Your body isn't.
Around perimenopause the way your body stores fat changes, and bone density starts to decline. Neither shows up on a scale. A DEXA scan measures both.
The complaints are real, and they are hard to place
Most of these are put down to age, or to stress, or to nothing in particular. Sound familiar?
- Poor sleep
- Weight gain
- Fatigue
- Irritability
What a scan shows in this phase
Oestrogen declining changes where the body stores fat: less on hips and thighs, more around the organs. At the same time bone renews more slowly than it breaks down. Those two happen at once and neither is visible from the outside — which is exactly why a measurement says more here than a mirror.
The fat around your organs — invisible from the outside and invisible to a scale. DEXA measures it directly.
The same measurement hospitals use to check bone health.
What it doesn't do
A DEXA scan is not a menopause test and it does not measure hormones. It tells you what your body is made of and how it is distributed, at one moment. What that means for you is the conversation afterwards.
Jeroen and Ernst do the scan and go through the report with you. If you would rather discuss this with a woman, say so when you request — we would rather hear it than have you not come.
Is the radiation safe?
A DEXA scan uses a fraction of the dose of a regular X-ray — comparable to a few hours of natural background radiation. It's still why a physician reviews every request first.
Is it covered by insurance?
No — this is a preventive scan you choose yourself, so it isn't reimbursed. The €150 covers the scan, the physician review and the results walkthrough.
Can I come if I'm pregnant?
No — during pregnancy we don't scan, even at this low dose. The questionnaire checks for this, and you're welcome afterwards.
Who performs the scan?
A trained technician performs the scan; a licensed physician approves it beforehand and signs off on your report.
How is this different from an MRI?
They answer different questions. An MRI images tissue and structures in detail and is a diagnostic tool a doctor orders when something specific needs looking at. A DEXA measures what your body is made of — fat, muscle and bone — and where it sits. A DEXA is quicker, far cheaper and uses a very low dose; it is not a substitute for an MRI and it looks for nothing that an MRI looks for.
Why not just use a scale or a smart body-fat monitor?
A scale gives you one number for your whole body, and that number cannot tell you whether you lost fat or muscle. A bio-impedance monitor — the kind in a smart scale — sends a small current through you and estimates the split from how easily it passes; that estimate shifts with how much you have drunk, eaten or trained that day. A DEXA measures the tissues separately and by region, so it can say where fat sits rather than only how much there is. That distinction is the whole point of this scan.