Assessing the severity of urinary incontinence in women by weighing perineal pads.

50 women with normal urinary control and 100 women with urinary incontinence wore a series of preweighed sanitary towels for 1 h. The pads were weighed again after use. Mean pad weight increase was less than 1 g/h in normal women and 12.2 g/h in women with incontinence. In each case the pad-weighing test provided information about the severity and the pattern of incontinence which was not easy to obtain either from patient interview or from clinical examination.