Female urinary incontinence is extremely common. As with any other disorder of bladder function it is difficult to make a diagnosis on the basis of symptoms alone. The appropriate investigative modalities for urinary incontinence are reviewed. Detrusor instability is a common cause of urinary incontinence and the current therapeutic modalities relating to this are reviewed with reference to recent developments. Stress incontinence is extremely common and consequently a number of investigative modalities and therapeutic options have been explored in the literature. An overview of these is presented and reference is made to some of the newer surgical modalities that are available. It is clear that in managing stress incontinence it is important to select the appropriate modality for the individual patient. It must be borne in mind that many of the newer therapeutic modalities that have been reported have been studied objectively in only small numbers of patients over limited follow-up periods.