Determining if you have osteoporosis or osteopenia requires a bone mineral density (BMD) test. If you are a post-menopausal woman, you may want to consider having such a test because osteopenia and osteoporosis often have no symptoms.
The best bone mineral density test is called dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The test is quick, painless, and very accurate. It measures the bone density in the hip, spine, and wrist and can be used to track changes in the density at these sites over time. Other tests that can measure bone density include ultrasound and computerized tomography (CT) scanning.