LISBON (Reuters) - Prominent women, led by Queen Rania of Jordan, called on world policymakers Saturday to step up early diagnosis of osteoporosis, a debilitating bone disease that affects one in three women over 50.

At a conference in Lisbon, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) said many sufferers did not receive costly treatment until the disease was advanced enough to cause bone fractures, often the prelude to disability.

"Prevention is the key," the queen, a patron of the IOF, told a round-table discussion at the conference. "Today, I join with women across the world to call for an end to this unnecessary suffering."

Camilla Parker Bowles--best known as companion to Britain's Prince Charles--told the conference how her mother and grandmother died from osteoporosis amid a lack of awareness of the disease's implications.

"We watched in horror as she quite literally shrunk before our eyes," Parker Bowles said. "I believe the quality of her life became so dismal and her suffering so unbearable, that she just gave up and died."

Osteoporosis occurs when the bones lose density, becoming porous and brittle. Getting enough calcium, as well as performing weight-bearing exercise like walking and weightlifting, can help preserve bone density and stave off osteoporosis.

The IOF specifically appealed for funding to pay for women at risk to have bone-density scans, which are not reimbursed in many countries and only available in others after waiting up to a year due to lack of suitable equipment.

Policymakers were also urged to pay for therapy to prevent the watershed first fracture and health care costs estimated by the IOF at $27 billion a year in Europe and the United States.

"While some governments restrict access to diagnosis and treatment to save money, they're not considering the high cost of treating women after they fracture," said Mel Read, a British member of the European Parliament.

"The problem will only get worse as the population ages," she added. "We are where the breast cancer campaign was 10 years ago. The message is that we need to catch up."

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