368 urodynamically investigated women of the University Hospital of Innsbruck (Austria) were separated into four groups depending on their incontinence status (either stress incontinence or not) and depending on previous incontinence surgery. In this collective of patients, we compared the urethral length, the absolute and relative functional urethral length and the absolute and relative length from the bladder to the point of maximum urethral closure pressure with the patients' age and menopausal status. The analysis showed a dependence of the urethral length on age and menopausal status in women having undergone no previous incontinence surgery, who suffered from genuine stress incontinence. In these patients, the relative length from the bladder to the point of maximum urethral closure pressure also depended on the menopausal status. In women with no previous surgical treatment showing no symptoms of genuine stress incontinence, we could find a relationship between the age of the patients and the relative length to the point of maximum urethral pressure. Furthermore we could show that, in continent patients, the distance bladder - point of maximum urethral closure pressure was more often longer than 60% of the functional urethral length than in patients suffering from genuine stress incontinence.