OBJECTIVES: To explore the personal experiences of Korean elderly women who have sustained osteoporotic fragility fractures regarding their disease and treatment burdens.  METHODS: The research design was a qualitative descriptive study. Open-ended questions were asked of twelve Korean elderly women who experienced at least two osteoporotic fractures. They participated in an in-depth face-to-face interview. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis method, which is an inductive process following eight steps developed by Downe-Wamboldt.  RESULTS: Five themes were identified: 1) physically living with pain and disability following unexpected fractures; 2) financially facing a penniless old age and unaffordable treatment cost; 3) emotionally feeling the unbridgeable gap between desired life and the present; 4) cognitively having health illiteracy and medical ignorance; and 5) socially and spiritually copying with pain and trying to be free from their suffering lives.  CONCLUSIONS: The interview participants described how they have suffered from chronic pains and a dysfunctional body after unexpected and recurrent fractures, which made their quality of life decrease. Since most women in this older generation have had low educational attainment and minimal financial preparations for their retirement years, they perceive the medical treatment cost of osteoporosis and their dependency on their own adult children as burdens. Therefore, Korean health care policy stakeholders and professionals need to develop medical assurance and osteoporotic fracture disease specific guidelines that are tailored to this generation.