BackgroundOsteoporosis is a major health problem of elders. Dual X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is the commonly used modality for diagnosis osteoporosis; serum markers have been suggested for predicting osteoporosis and discriminate osteoporotic from healthy subjects. We aimed to analyze the status of some bone turnover biochemical markers namely PINP, B-ALP, estrogen, and progesterone in the elderly osteoporotic and osteopenic women as probable markers for the discrimination between patients and healthy individual in diagnosing osteoporosis, and also, to detect the impact of osteoporosis on quality of life of patients using assessment of the quality of life for osteoporosis (ECOS-16). Post-menopausal 108 females were involved in the current study, divided into two groups (osteoporotic group (60 with BMD˂-2.5), osteopenic group (48 with BMD between − 1 and − 2.5)), and 60 healthy elderly females as control group were involved in the study. Serum levels of procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide (PINP), bone alkaline phosphatase (B-ALP), estrogen, and progesterone were measured by ELISA technique.ResultsPINP and B-ALP significantly differ between studied groups. Also, PINP and B-ALP levels had high sensitivity and specificity to discriminate osteoporotic patients from healthy individuals. PINP and B-ALP significantly correlated with bone mineral density (BMD) and with ECOS-16. Estrogen differs significantly between osteoporotic and osteopenic groups and significantly correlated with bone mineral density of femur (BMD-F) and bone mineral density of spine (BMD-S) in the osteopenic group. Progesterone differed significantly between patients and controls and significantly correlated with BMD-F in the osteoporotic group.ConclusionWe can consider PINP and B-ALP as biomarkers for early detection then monitoring of osteoporosis. Measuring these serum markers can replace the assessment of BMD if not available. Also, it could replace the gap between BMD subsequently spaced assessment or could be of value in cases with severe spondylosis, DISH syndrome, old spondylarthritis, and/or previous spinal surgery. Sex hormones could not differentiate the normal from the osteoporotic/osteopenic patients, so they cannot be used as diagnostic or prognostic markers. Validation of this assumption needs large and longitudinal studies.