Midurethral tapes are by now standard procedure in the surgical treatment of women with stress urinary incontinence. While the retropubic TVT is well documented with long-term results up to 11 years and continence rates of 90 %, the published data for the transoburator tapes (TO) cover follow-up of 3 years only. So far, all tapes establish continence effectively. Recently, the detailed 27-item Incontinence Outcome Questionnaire (IOQ) was constructed to assess patient-reported outcome and quality of life after insertion of a midurethral tape and validated for the German language. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient-reported mid- and long-term outcome after insertion of tension-free vaginal tape (TVT), transobturator sling, outside-in (TOT) and tension-free transobturator tape, inside-out (TVT-O).