OBJECTIVE: To evaluate direct expenditures associated with urinary incontinence and overall medical expenditures incurred by women diagnosed with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). METHODS: This is a Retrospective analysis of administrative claims data. We identified women with a diagnosis of SUI in 1996-1999 and no stress, urge or mixed urinary incontinence diagnoses in the prior year. We compared total expenditures as well as urinary-incontinence-related expenditures for the year before and after the initial SUI diagnosis. We also compared expenditures for SUI patients receiving surgical treatment to those who did not. RESULTS: 8126 patients met eligibility criteria. Mean annual total expenditures and UI-related expenditures for all SUI patients in the year following initial SUI diagnosis were $9147 (SD $12,434) and $1,382 (SD $2,758) respectively (15% of total expenditures). The predicted annual total expenditures and UI-related expenditures for surgical patients were $13,081 (SD $5,015) and $3,905 (SD $1134) (30% of total expenditures). Among women with no comorbid urinary diagnoses, approximately 10% ($733; SD $1,992) of total mean regression-adjusted annual expenditures ($7,075; SD $12,594) were attributable to UI. Predicted total expenditures for surgery patients without comorbid urinary diagnoses were $13,018 (SD $6,234), 31% of which ($4,056; SD $1,519) were for UI-related costs. CONCLUSIONS: After diagnosis, annual expenditures for patients were roughly twice that in the year prior to diagnosis. Multivariate analysis suggests that in the year after SUI diagnosis, UI treatment costs represented approximately 10-15% of total expenditures for all SUI patients, and 30-31% of total expenditures for the subset of surgically-treated patients.