Urinary Incontinence
General Facts
By definition urinary incontinence refers to the inability to control the bladder resulting in involuntary loss of urine. Both men and women suffer from this condition. Although incontinence is not a disease in itself, the impact it can have on a person’s life are indisputable: limitation or inability to travel or to attend social events, the feeling of shame and embarrassment of ‘wetting’ one’s self, the fear that it can happen any time and it can’t be controlled,are just a few. There are two main types of incontinence :
- Stress incontinence: involuntary loss of urine during sneezing, coughing, jumping, lifting weights or other kind of physical exercises;
- Urge incontinence: involuntary loss of urine occurs due to the hyperactivity of the bladder. Also known as "overactive bladder”.
- More types have been determined, but incidences are lower: mixed urinary incontinence, overflow incontinence and functional urinary incontinence.
Symptoms and Causes
Urinary incontinence may appear as a symptom of urinary tract infections or an enlarged prostate in men, also during pregnancy or immediately after giving birth and after a spinal cord injury or a stroke. Frequent sudden need to urinate, leaking urine before getting to the toilet, the need to urinate soon after returning from the toilet, are all signs of incontinence that should be examined by a medical professional.
Investigation and Diagnosis
In order to reach a diagnosis, the doctor will ask you about your urination habits :
- how often do you urinate, when and how the leakage occurs, how much urine is lost
- and also perform a series of investigations to decide upon the type and the cause of the incontinence. The post void residual examination is a very common procedure most often recommended, as well as pelvic ultrasound, cystoscopy and uroflowmetry.
Treatment and prevention
Unfortunately some women in their elderly years consider it just a sign of old age and never look for medical assistance, although incontinence can be treated with success. Depending on the cause and symptoms and looking into the results of the investigations, the treatment may vary from something as simple as Kegel exercises to surgery. Medication is also available and can be prescribed for specific types of urinary incontinence, also changes in diet and lifestyle might be necessary. Each patient needs acustomized program, adapted to their daily routine and the amount of physical exercise they take.