Urinary Incontinence, an accidental loss of urine, is a common problem for women throughout adulthood – often seriously affecting their work, hobbies and social life.
Although there are different types of incontinence, in this tip we will focus on Stress Urinary Incontinence or “SUI”. This type of bladder leakage can be brought on by laughing, coughing, sneezing, heavy lifting, exercising, and sometimes just standing up.
Stress Urinary Incontinence can occur for many reasons:
- A result of weakness in the muscles that support the bladder and/or control the release of urine.
- Muscles often lose strength as a result of childbirth. SUI can begin just after delivery or several years later. The condition can be aggravated by urinary tract infections, chronic coughing or sneezing, obesity, diabetes, high caffeine from alcohol intake, certain medications, and sports such as tennis or running.
- Pelvic floor muscle weakness is proportionally increased with the number of vaginal deliveries a woman has and any forceps deliveries.
- Aging generally weakens muscles as women get older and as estrogen production stops with menopause.
- Obesity increases the pressure put on the bladder.
- Heredity plays a role as well. Even women who have not had children can have SUI due to genetically weaker connective tissue.
Talk with your Urologist doctor
Urinary Incontinence can be a difficult problem to discuss because some women are embarrassed by it, think it is just a “normal” part of aging, or think it is something they have to live with. Please brush those prideful thoughts away and talk with your Urologist doctor. There are many treatment options now available which can quickly improve your life, increase your social activity, return you to exercising, and have you enjoying sex once again.
In order to appropriately diagnose the cause of a woman’s Urinary Incontinence, our doctors will perform some diagnostic tests. These tests can be as simple as a urinalysis or urine culture, or more in-depth like an urodynamics test. This testing can be performed in our office and many times the results are available during the same appointment. Once the diagnosis is made, treatment options can be discussed with our doctors.
Stress Urinary Incontinence treatment
Behavioral changes that can help with Stress Urinary Incontinence include smoking cessation, weight loss, caffeine reduction, timed voiding, and pelvic floor therapy, which is available at our office.
Medications are also effective in curing Stress Urinary Incontinence. Like any medicine, they do have side effects that need to be considered before treatment is started. For some women, a pessary may be the right choice. A pessary is a removable device inserted in the vagina to help support the bladder.
Surgery is also an option to end Stress Urinary Incontinence. In this common outpatient procedure, a mesh sling is surgically placed to support the urethra in the correct position.
It does not matter how long you have been suffering from Urinary Incontinence or how old you are, there is at least an 80% chance it can be cured or at least improved.