[Correlation between complaints of stress urinary incontinence and the one-hour pad test in postmenopausal women].

Objective: to correlate complaints of stress urinary incontinence and the results of a one-hour pad test in pre- and postmenopausal women.

Methods: cross-sectional study conducted on 60 postmenopausal volunteers divided into two groups: one consisting of 34 women with involuntary loss of urine due to stress incontinence and the other consisting of 26 women without involuntary loss of urine. A control group of 15 premenopausal women with normal menstrual cycles and no urinary complaints was also used. All women underwent clinical and laboratory analysis as well as the one-hour pad test. Patients were considered to be incontinent when sanitary pad weight post-test was more than 1 g. Data were submitted to descriptive statistics, parametric ANOVA, post-hoc Tukey test and Pearson's correlation.

Results: all postmenopausal women presented with stress urinary incontinence during the pad test, both those with urinary loss (4 g) and with no previous loss (3.5 g). A strong correlation was observed between urinary loss and time since menopause (r=0.8; p<0.01) and body mass index (r=0.7; p=0.01). Premenopausal women were continent during the pad test (0.4 g).

Conclusions: the results of the one-hour pad test showed that all postmenopausal women exhibited stress urinary incontinence, including those without urine loss on effort. Urine loss was correlated with time since menopause and body mass index.