“…The causality behind the low fracture risk found in former male athletes is debated, A recent study has reported BMD z-seores around LO in retired athletes (32), which hypothetically would halve the fracture risk (1,5,22), On the confrary, most prospective confrolled studies which have followed athletes from active career into retirement indicate a higher rate of BMD loss during the frrst decade after retirement than would be expected with age (10,27,34), Whether this high rate is temporary or persists with long-term retirement has not been clarified, although cross-sectional studies in elderly former athletes infer that all benefits in BMD will be lost after decades of retirement (6,15,17), Because exercise is also reported to produce larger bone size (19,21), and if the benefits remained long term (1,6), this would modulate fracture risk as bone size contributes to bone strength and fracture risk independently of BMD (1,2,6,8,35), Residual benefits in neuromuscular ftmetion may influence fracture risk too as it influences the risk of sustaining falls (5,24,29,30), To complicate the issue even frjrther, exercise on a high level has shown to be associated with an increased incidence of soft tissue hip (7) and knee (20,33) injuries and prevalence of hip and knee OA (23,33), conditions that may lead to a less active lifestyle that is accompanied by low BMD (5) and a higher fracture risk (1,5,22), The low level of physical activity may also lead to less exposure to trauma and thereby, hypothetieally, a lower fracture risk (3,15),…”