Urinary incontinence is a common problem in women, but is not limited to women.  More than 13 million Americans - both male and female, young and old - experience incontinence.  However, women experience incontinence four times more often than men.  Pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, and the structure of the female urinary tract account for this difference.

 

If you are a woman and suffer from incontinence, it is important to remember that all types of urinary incontinence can be treated in women of all ages.  And most importantly, it is nothing that should embarrass you.  Check with your health care professional to see what can be done to help you.  The number of women reporting and seeking incontinence treatment is constantly increasing as they learn that it is a medical problem and can be treated.

 

Sometimes patients may believe there is no treatment available for their incontinence.  But that is not always the case.

 

"A complete workup is mandatory."  When you come in, please bring the names of medications tried and the procedures/surgeries performed.  Writing down the volumes and number of times you void in a 24-hour period gives a complete bladder diary.  Completeing this diary and bringing it in at the time of your visit would be very helpful.

 

Older women, more often than younger women, experience incontinence.  Urinary incontinence is not part of the normal aging process.  It is a sign that there is an underlying problem.  You may develop bladder control problems after going through menopause.  As your periods end, your body stops making estrogen, in addition to its other functions, estrogen helps keep the lining of the bladder and urethra healthy.  Lack of estrogen can cause the bladder control muscles to weaken and may lead to incontinence.

 

Other common causes of bladder control problems include ingestions, nerve damage from diabetes or stroke, heart problems, medications, and depression.

 

Treatments vary depending on the cause of the incontinence.  Hormone therapy addresses the decrease in estrogen, but may not be the answer for everyone.  You might try limiting your intake of caffeine and alcohol, practicing Kegel exercises, retraining your bladder, and finally, it has been suggested that weight reduction and exercise may help prevent or reduce the likelihood of developing urinary incontinence.

 

Your health care professional may suggest other courses of action including medications, biofeedback, electrical stimulation of pelvic muscles, a pessary which is inserted into the vagina to hold up the bladder, a device inserted into the urethra to block leakage, or surgery to lift a sagging bladder into a better position.

 

We can start with simple exercises, adding medications, minimally invasive same-day surgery, or more invasive surgery requiring a stay in the hospital and longer recovery, only if necessary.

 

 

Have you ever laughed so hard you felt you could wet your pants?  That's urinary stress incontinence and it generally happens during sudden increases in abdominal pressure - when you sneeze, cough, or exercise.

 

Kegel exercises are a risk-free, low cost, painless, and non-medical way to help women deal with urinary stress incontinence.  Kegels are an isometric program to help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.  Why are these muscles important?  They are attached to the pelvic bone and act like a hammock, holding in your pelvic organs and they control the flow of urine, the voluntary contraction of the vagina, and the anal sphincter.

 

Properly performed, Kegel exercises can help improve stress incontinence in up to two-thirds of women.  Most women start out exercising the wrong muscles.  To locate the correct muscles, pretend you are in church and are trying to hold back 'gas."  Those are the muscles you need to identify and work with.

 

Now that you've identified the muscle, here is how you can strengthen it.  Contract the muscle and hold tight for 10 seconds, relax and repeat, continuing the repetition for one minute and working up to five minutes twice a day.  The exercise should become part of your voiding routine and be practiced twice daily.

 

Types of urinary incontinence