Hi Christine, if the population were a healthy population, then you are correct, it would make more sense to compare you to those in your age bracket (thus using the Z-Score). The problem is, the population is generally a sick population. “Generally speaking” the bones of the aging population are worse than they SHOULD be due to the poor lifestyles, rampant pharmaceutical use, sedentary lifestyles, abnormal levels of chronic stress, etc. Said another way, you can’t compare your bones to other women in your age group because their bones are not representative of good, strong, resilient bones. So, the best alternative we have is to compare your bones to the bones of someone younger, because even though the youth are unhealthy, their bones are not generally fragile…yet. Truthfully, the best approach is to look for other means of assessing quality and resilience of bones. This is where Echolight REMS shines. It gives you both a T-Score AND a fragility score. The fragility score is the closest thing to comparing you to healthy women in your age group with healthy bones. When we scan women, we focus more on the Fragility Score than we do on the T-Score, though both are important. So, my recommendation is to get an Echolight REMS test, and then use that to measure and monitor your progress. I hope this helps to answer your questions.