OBJECTIVE: An overwiev of the genetic aspects of pelvic floor defects and stress urinary incontinence in women. DESIGN: A review article. SETTING: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. METHODS: An analysis of the literature using database search engines PubMed, BLAST and Ensembl in field of POP and SUI. RESULTS: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) affect a large number of women and often requires surgical correction. Moreover, these diseases are not only individual health but also social and economic burden on patients and society. It is possible to prevent or at least timely intervene these pathologies by screening of risk patients. The incidence of these disorders leads to find possible genetic factors. In ethiopathogenetic studies of pelvic floor defects and stress urinary incontinence it is looking for genes associated with these diseases and optimization of molecular biology methods is necessary to determine the possible gene mutations or polymorphism site. Selection of relevant genetic factors tend to clarify the pathomechanism of SUI and POP that can greatly affect their current diagnostics and therapeutics. KEYWORDS: prolapse, stress urinary incontinence, polymorphism, gene expression.