OBJECTIVES: To estimate the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost in a nationwide representative sample of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Effect of previous bone fracture and type of drug-based therapy of osteoporosis were also explored.  METHODS: DALYs were estimated based on patients’ clinical characteristics and Health-Related Quality-of-Life (HRQoL) data from a cross-sectional, epidemiological one-visit study (the GINERISK study). The study enrolled postmenopausal women (at least 12-month after last menstrual period) with osteoporosis, above 18-years old, who were attending outpatient clinics of Gynecology in Spain. Socio-demographics, bone densitometry (BD) and HRQoL were recorded. HRQoL was assessed using the generic SF-12v2 questionnaire, which was used to derive disutility values. Mortality rates were extracted from the Spanish national statistics database. DALY´s were calculated according to Fox-Rushby and Hanson (2001) and ANCOVA models, adjusted for age, BD, previous osteoporotic bone fractures (BF), treatment with calcium or calcium+vitamin D, exercise and number of risk factors for osteoporosis, were used for comparative purposes. RESULTS: DALYs could be computed in 2,782 (67%) out of 4,157 postmenopausal women, with a mean (95% CI) age of 61.0 (60.7-61.2) years. Mean overall undiscounted DALY´s lost per women were 6.1 (5.9-6.2), with a significantly higher loss in women with previous BF; 7.8 (7.2-8.4) in comparison with women without BF [5.8 (5.6-6.0)] or osteoporotics with a BD >-2.5    T-score after receiving a drug-based therapy [6.2 (5.8-6.5)]; F=27.0 (P<0.01). A model explaining the variation in the levels of health was found which included the use of a SERM-based therapy, age, previous osteoporotic BF and the number of risk factors for osteoporosis as significant predictors (P <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: DALY´s loss was considerable amongst postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The use of a SERM, not having previous osteoporotic bone fracture, having less osteoporotics risk factors and being older showed to be linked to less DALY´s lost.