Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Check out SitOrSquat.com for the Nearest Toilet

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare
Women’s urinary incontinence is a pain in the … panties! The wet panties, that is. If you are a woman suffering from urinary incontinence, then knowing the location of the nearest bathroom is always a priority.In your local area, that’s probably not an issue since you are familiar with the territory. But what if you have to take a business trip or are going on a family vacation? Are you then up a creek without a toilet?

Nope. Because technology will come to the rescue!

SitOrSquat.com is Help for Women’s Urinary Incontinence
If you can use a computer, then you’ve got a lot of resources at hand if you have to travel, and don’t know where to find bathrooms. Just visit this website, designed especially for people with incontinence:

http://www.sitorsquat.com

The website has three major features:

  • Helps you find a toilet near you (just type in your location)
  • Offers an online support community
  • Provides mobile applications for iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Android, or via text messaging
The website is amazingly simple to use. We put in our location (Austin, Texas) and immediately got a map filled with literally dozens and dozens of toilets. It also tells you whether the toilet is open or closed (if possible), and the name of the location where the toilet is located (like Starbuck’s).If you know of a toilet in your area that does not show up on the map, you can also use their “Add a Toilet” function to add it to the map.

Women with urinary incontinence need all the help they can get when traveling … so if you are planning a trip soon, be sure to check out the website before you leave home. You might also want to check out these additional travel tips to help your trip go more smoothly:

Travel Tips for Women with Urinary Incontinence

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our ebook, or follow us on Twitter.

 

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Better Get Mad Not Sad

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare

If you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence, chances are that you will experience one of two emotions about your situation: you’ll be mad or you’ll be sad.

Well guess what? It’s better to be mad rather than sad. 

Why Being Mad is Better than Being Sad
When it comes to women’s urinary incontinence, you are far better to get angry about your situation than to feel sad or depressed.

Why? Because studies show that women who feel sad or depressed about their situation are less likely to see help.

In addition, women who are sad or depressed are more likely to:

  • Overeat, which only contribute to urine leakage
  • Abuse alcohol or sedatives, both of which dull the senses and can interfere with the awareness of the need to urinate
  • Lack the incentive to get up and go to the bathroom

While getting angry isn’t necessarily the healthiest emotional response, anger is a more active emotional response. The woman who is angry or frustrated enough about her urine leakage is more likely to pick up the phone and make an appointment with her doctor to get help.

The Bottom Line about Urinary Incontinence
The bottom line, literally, is that when it comes to urine leakage and wet panties, you are far better served if you get mad about your situation than if you just feel sad. Sadness and depression are stagnant emotions, and tend to keep you stuck in the status quo.

If you feel sad or depressed about your urinary incontinence, then stop it. Get mad instead! Think about all the parts of your life that you are missing out on because of your urine leakage problem. Think about all the social situations you no longer attend, all the friends you no longer see, and all the sex you might be missing out on.

Then get mad … and get help! Here are some tips to help you choose the right doctor, prepare for your visit, and use the right words at your appointment:

Find the Right Doctor
3 Step to Prepare for Your Doctor’s Visit
Use the Right Words at Your Appointment

 

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: 5 Requirements for Bladder Health

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence
If you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence, you may be feeling quite frustrated about your wet panties, especially if you haven’t been able to solve your symptoms quickly.But hold on … the human anatomy is a complicated system, and everything has to work just right for you to avoid urinary incontinence.Did you know that your urinary system has to meet 5 requirements for you to urinate properly?

Really.

The 5 Requirements for Bladder Health
Having a healthy bladder, and resolving your urinary incontinence, means you urinate every three to six hours, which is typical for a healthy person. Unfortunately, if you have women’s urinary incontinence, you probably run for the bathroom far more frequently.

Why is that? One or more of these five functions may not be working well in your body, preventing you from going when you want to … rather than when your body forces you to go.

Requirement #1 for Bladder Health: A Big Enough Bladder
A healthy bladder can hold up to 2 cups of urine before it needs to be emptied. If, for some reason, the walls of your bladder don’t stretch enough to accommodate this amount of urine, you’ll either have urine leakage or need to visit the bathroom often.

Requirement #2 for Bladder Health: Feel the Urge
When your bladder is full, it sends a signal through your nervous system to your brain, which gives you the urge to go. That means that your nervous system has to be functioning properly, and your brain has to interpret the signal correctly. Due to injury, illness, or neurological conditions, some women do not get the sensation of a full bladder and end up instead with wet panties.

Requirement #3 for Bladder Health: Get a Move On
Once your brain sends you the message that you need to urinate, the next impediment is finding a bathroom quickly enough. Hence the “bathroom radar” many women with urinary incontinence develop. For some seniors, speed of movement is a difficulty. For other women, getting their clothes off quickly enough can be a problem. For this reason, many women end up wearing pants with elastic waistbands or other “easy off” clothing. This can definitely ruin a gal’s fashion sense!

Requirement #4 for Bladder Health: Control Those Bladder Muscles
To control your urination and prevent urine leakage, you need strong pelvic floor muscles, especially the muscle called the bladder sphincter. To improve the tone of your pelvic floor muscles, consider doing Kegels and other toning exercises specifically for your muscles “down there.” Many women do Kegels, but incorrectly, so they see very few results. To discover how to do a correct pelvic floor contraction and more, download our free ebook, which gives you step-by-step instructions.

Requirement #5 for Bladder Health: Empty the Bladder Completely
If you are able to get to a bathroom in time to avoid a leakage accident, but then can’t empty your bladder completely, then you’ll feel the urge to urinate soon. The inability to empty your bladder completely not only increases the frequency of your urge to urinate, but can also increase your risk of urinary tract infections. If you feel that your bladder is not emptying completely each time you urinate, check with an urologist. A quick test will confirm whether this is one of the causes of your urinary incontinence.

Steps You Can Take for Bladder Health
Hopefully this snapshot of the different requirements necessary for bladder health gives you an idea of where you body’s urinary system may be breaking down. Armed with this knowledge, you can better communicate with your healthcare providers about your situation.

In addition, check out these resources for women’s urinary incontinence:

Free Ebook: What’s Up Down There?
Online Resources for Women’s Urinary Incontinence

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our ebook, or follow us on Twitter.

 

Ladies: When are Wet Panties Good and When are They Bad?

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare
Wet panties can be good … under the right circumstances, like when things are about to heat up the bedroom. Wet panties can also be bad, especially for women who suffer from urinary incontinence.

When we panties are a good thing, women have no worries. It’s when wet panties are a bad thing, due to urine leakage, that the situation starts to go downhill.

Wet Panties and Women’s Urinary Incontinence: A Bad Thing
When women have the “bad” kind of wet panties, they start worrying about things like:

– whether they smell like urine
– when the next “accident” might happen
– where the nearest bathrooms are located
– whether to start buying pads, diapers, or other incontinence products
– how to keep their urinary incontinence a secret

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff to worry about. Luckily, for many women, conservative treatment can transform the “bad” kind of wet panties to the “good” kind.

Kegels: One Way to Go from “Bad” to “Good” Wet Panties
Did you know that according to the Agency of Healthcare Research and Policy, 8 out of 10 cases of urinary incontinence can be improved? What’s more, a review of recent studies on the effects of Kegel exercises indicates that women who did the exercises were anywhere from 2.5 to 17 times more likely to be cured of stress urinary incontinence symptoms.

Toning your pelvic floor muscles with exercises like Kegels (pelvic floor muscle contractions) is a great way to transition from the icky form of wet panties to the sexy kind of wet panties.

Add to that the fact that studies indicate increased pelvic floor strength leads to more satisfying sexual sensation for many women, and you have more reason than ever to do Kegels. To top it off, having a healthy sex life can actually increase the tone of a woman’s pelvic floor, which decreases the risk for stress urinary incontinence.

Talk about things getting better and better! You do Kegels, which leads to better sex and decreased symptoms of urinary incontinence. More sex tones your pelvic floor muscles even more, which further decreases risks for stress urinary incontinence.

You can’t lose, right?

How to Get Started with Kegels
Right, except here’s the problem: many women do Kegels, but incorrectly. Instead of contracting their pelvic floor muscles, many women tighten their buttocks or other parts of their body. Some women even push down on their bladder while doing what they think are Kegels. None of these approaches will strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.

To ensure that you are doing Kegels correctly, and to assess the actual strength of your pelvic floor muscles, download our free ebook. This ebook gives you specific step-by-step instructions for doing a correct pelvic floor contraction, and troubleshoots all the problem areas that most women encounter. Plus, the ebook has two great “quickie” tests to help you assess the strength of your pelvic floor right now. You can get the ebook here:

Download the “What’s Up Down There?” ebook here

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our ebook, or follow us on Twitter.

 

Female Urinary Incontinence: Are You Afraid to Sit on Your Friend’s Couch?

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinencePelvic Floor MusclesStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare

Although this may seem silly to women who don’t have urinary incontinence,it is nevertheless true.

According to a landmark study conducted by the National Association for Continence (NAFC) the fear of soiling a friend’s furniture with urine leakage ranks as one of the top fears for women with urinary incontinence.

Here are the top fears of women who have urinary incontinence:

– 78% of women surveyed said that one of their greatest sources of potential embarrassment would be leaking urine on a friend’s upholstered furniture

– 78% said they feared that they smelled like urine

– 76% were afraid that other people would know they had urinary incontinence

Is it any wonder that women with urinary incontinence become more and more isolated? Is it any surprise that these women cut off social contact and refuse to venture out?

More importantly, do these fears resonate with you?

What to Do If You are Afraid to Sit on a Friend’s Couch
If you are one of the women who share the fears listed above, here are some tips to help you feel safer about sitting on your friend’s couch. If you haven’t already, you need to seek help from a qualified health professional to get a correct diagnosis and explore your treatment options. In addition, here are some conservative steps you can take on your own to prevent urine leakage while sitting on your friend’s couch.

1. Avoid Bladder Irritant Food and Drinks
Although your friend is likely to offer you everything from coffee to wine during a social visit, both of these are bladder irritants, and are likely to increase your chances of a urine leakage accident. Stay away from acidic food and drinks, as well as caffeinated and alcoholic beverages. Ask for plain water or herbal tea instead. Learn more about the food and drink to avoid here.

2. Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor Muscles
Doing exercises like Kegels, which are pelvic floor muscle contractions, can strengthen your pelvic floor and prevent leakage accidents. If you are not sure how to do a Kegel (or are not sure you are doing Kegels correctly), download our ebook for some quick instructions. 

Start by doing Kegels at home. Once you are proficient at doing them, take then on the road with you. Practice Kegels while waiting in line at a fast food joint or while idling in your car at a stoplight. More importantly, if you feel a urine leakage accident about to happen, do a couple of quick Kegels. This often buys you some time so you can make it to the bathroom before the accident.

3. Limit Fluid Intake and Practice Bladder Training
If you know you are going to visiting with friends, limit your fluid intake before you leave your house. You might need to experiment with this to find out how long before you leave the house you need to decrease fluid intake. Don’t stop drinking fluids altogether, as this can actual worsen urinary incontinence symptoms, but do learn your body’s reaction to fluids so you can time your fluid intake correctly.

Also, you can practice bladder training, starting at home. When you feel the urge to urinate, hold off visiting the bathroom for a few minutes. Work you way up to a 10 minute delay. This bladder delay technique will serve you well if you are visiting friends and feel the sudden urge to urinate.

Stay Social to Avoid Isolation and Depression
The whole point here is that you shouldn’t be afraid to sit on your friend’s couch, even if you do suffer from symptoms of urinary incontinence. With a little planning and some practice at home, you should be able visit all of your friends. In fact, it is important to stay socially connected with your friends and family.

Women with urinary incontinence typically decrease their social connections over time, and begin isolating themselves. This can often lead to depression, weight gain, and worsening urine leakage … it’s a vicious cycle. Staying socially and physically active are major factors in helping you keep your urinary incontinence symptoms at bay.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our ebook, or follow us on Twitter.
Photo credit: Free Digital Photos

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: The Many Faces

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinencePelvic Floor WeaknessStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

If you think that the face of women’s urinary incontinence is an aging baby boomer headed for assisted living, then think again. 

Contrary to popular opinion, urinary incontinence affects women of all ages, from the teenager who suffers from “giggle incontinence” to the young woman athlete who strains something “down there.”

And then there’s the 30-something mother who suddenly finds herself in wet panties post-partum, and the 45-year-old career woman who suddenly can’t work out because she leaks urine every time she gets on the treadmill.

Still think you recognize all the faces of women’s urinary incontinence?

Women’s Urinary Incontinence by Age Group
Urinary incontinence isn’t normal at any age, and yet it can happen to females at any age. We’re all familiar with the poor bladder control in toddlers, but few women expect to deal with the problem again until much later in life. Unfortunately, it happens, though for different reasons at different points in our lives.

Giggle Incontinence in Youngsters
As the name suggests, giggle incontinence happens to young adults in their pre-teen and teenage years, usually when they giggle or otherwise put pressure on their bladders. This condition affects about 7% of young women in the U.S., and most children and young adults who suffer from this condition don’t have any physical abnormalities. Research indicates that this condition may be genetically-linked and can be passed down from parents to children.

The good news is that giggle incontinence can be treated with conservative measures and behavior modification. Read more about resolving giggle incontinence here.

Young Women
Women in their 20s and 30s often develop symptoms of urinary incontinence for a variety of reasons. Avid athletes who participate in high-impact sports can develop weakened pelvic floor muscles or suffer injuries in their pelvic region, resulting in urine leakage. Some young women have naturally weak pelvic floor muscles, which can also cause urinary incontinence. For these women, conservative measures, such as doing correct Kegels, can strengthen their pelvic floor muscles and often resolve urine leakage issues.

Post-Partum Women
Many a post-partum woman has returned to her normal exercise routine only to discover that she now leaks urine. The effects of pregnancy and vaginal deliveries can weaken a woman’s pelvic floor muscles, causing urinary incontinence. Although many women do Kegels during pregnancy and post-partum, a large number of them do this pelvic floor contraction incorrectly, which does little to alleviate their urine leakage. Luckily, learning to do correct Kegels and using other conservative measures, such as medication and behavior modification, can often help these women resolve their symptoms.

Baby Boomers
While this is the most recognized face of women’s urinary incontinence, the baby boomer woman who has urinary incontinence may also be the one least likely to seek help. Many older women assume that urine leakage is just a normal sign of aging, so don’t ask their doctors for help. If you are a baby boomer with urinary incontinence, don’t let your age stop you from getting the help you need. There are many options available to women at any age for dealing with urinary incontinence, so be sure to explore all of your options!

Explore the Many Faces of Women’s Urinary Incontinence
In this blog post we cover the faces of women’s urinary incontinence by age group, but there are also different faces associated with the three kinds of urinary incontinence, which are stress, urge, and mixed. Women with weak pelvic floor muscles can also experience pelvic organ prolapse and decreased sexual sensation. Learn all the different faces of urinary incontinence, decide if one of them belongs to you, and get on the road to recovery by starting with these links:

Is This You?
What’s Up Down There? A Free Ebook on Women’s Pelvic Floor Health

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our ebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Urinary Incontinence: Does the Sound of Water Make You “Go”?

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceUrinary Incontinence

When it comes to urinary incontinence, most women just know that they have to deal with wet panties and endless inconvenience. What a lot of women don’t know is that there are actually three kinds of urinary incontinence:

– Stress Urinary Incontinence
– Urge Urinary Incontinence
– Mixed Urinary Incontinence

If the sound of water makes you leak urine, then you most likely have urge urinary incontinence, which is also called overactive bladder. If you also leak urine when you cough or sneeze, then you have mixed urinary incontinence, which is a combination of stress and urge urinary incontinence. Finally, if you only have urine leakage when you put pressure on your abdominal cavity, like when you step off a curb or jump around, then you have stress urinary incontinence.

It’s important to know what kind of urinary incontinence you have so you can get the right treatment. Each kind of urinary incontinence is treated differently.

To learn more about each of the different kinds of women’s urinary incontinence, check out the links below. Knowledge is power. If you are tired of dealing with wet panties and adult diapers, the first step in changing your life is to learn more. Start learning here:

Stress Urinary Incontinence
Urge Urinary Incontinence
Mixed Urinary Incontinence

And then, visit a doctor to get a true diagnosis of your condition. Need help finding a doctor? Here are some tips to get you started:

Find the Right Doctor

 

Urinary Incontinence: Not How Much but What You Drink That Matters

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare

The first reaction many women have to urinary leakage is to cut back significantly on their fluid intake. After all, it does make sense that what goes into your body must come out. That means the less fluid you take in, the less likely you are to leak urine, right?

Not necessarily.

Actually, decreasing your fluid intake too much may actually irritate your bladder, which can cause more urine leakage, not less. To avoid this you need to drink enough fluid to stay hydrated, usually between four and nine cups of water per day. To improve symptoms of urinary incontinence, focus on what and when you drink. This applies to stress, urge, and mixed urinary incontinence.

What Should You Drink to Avoid Urine Leakage?
It turns out that what you drink, along with when you drink, has more effect on symptoms of urinary incontinence than how much you drink. Any fluids that irritate your bladder should be avoided, while water is always a good choice.

It may surprise you how often you drink fluids that may irritate your bladder. For instance, do you chug a couple cups of coffee or tea to wake yourself up in the morning? Or maybe you slurp down a soda with lunch, and drink another in the late afternoon to help yourself stay awake. Finally, you drink a glass of wine with dinner to relax at the end of a long day.

Unfortunately, all of these are on the “do not drink” list for women with urinary incontinence. Coffee, tea, and most sodas have caffeine, which irritate the bladder. Ditto for the carbonation in the soda and the arylalkylamines in the wine. You might be surprised at how much your urinary incontinence symptoms will improve just by cutting these drinks from your daily menu. Choose water or decaffeinated teas instead.

When Should Your Drink Fluids to Avoid Urine Leakage?
When you drink fluids can also significantly impact urinary incontinence symptoms. To reduce urine leakage, drink the majority of your water in the morning. Reduce fluid intake after 6 p.m. (or two to three hours before bedtime) to decrease nighttime voiding and incontinence.

Making just a few simple changes in what and when you drink fluids can significantly improve your symptoms of urinary incontinence. If you don’t believe it, keep track of your leakage accidents for a week before making any changes. Then, change your fluid intake habits and track your results. You will surprise yourself!

 

Triggers for Women’s Urinary Incontinence

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceUrinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare
If you suffer from symptoms of urinary incontinence then knowing how to prevent leakage accidents probably tops your list of important things to know.There are many ways to treat the various types of urinary incontinence–stress, urge, and mixed–and sometimes knowing what triggers your incontinence symptoms can help you prevent accidents.

Triggers for Urinary Incontinence
Depending on what form of urinary incontinence you have, the events that trigger urine leakage will vary. With stress urinary incontinence, triggers include anything that increases pressure on or inside your abdomen, usually some form of physical activity or exercise. For some women the trigger can be as slight as stepping off a curb or walking vigorously. For others, the trigger may be more extreme, such as sneezing, picking up a heavy object, or doing aerobic exercise.

If you have urge urinary incontinence, your triggers are different. For most women, hearing the sound of running water or feeling the sensation of water on their hand can trigger the uncontrollable urge to urinate. Spicy foods, carbonated beverages, caffeine, and other foods and drinks that irritate the bladder can also trigger urge urinary incontinence.

For women with mixed urinary incontinence, any of the above triggers may bring on a leakage accident.

Finding Your Triggers for Urinary Incontinence
If you are not sure what triggers your urinary incontinence, keep a journal for a week or so. Track your food and water intake, as well as any events that seem to trigger urine leakage. You can also experiment with some lifestyle habits to see whether they improve or worsen your symptoms. Some good places to start experimenting include:

– decreasing your intake of caffeinated, alcoholic, and carbonated beverages
– stopping or decreasing smoking
– increasing your fiber intake to reduce constipation

You will also want to record the times and amounts of urine leakage, as well as how often you make it to the bathroom to urinate. All of this information will help your doctor determine your type of urinary incontinence and the best ways to treat it.

The more you know about your urinary incontinence, the more empowered you will be as an advocate for your own health and well-being. No matter how long you have dealt with urinary incontinence, it’s never too late to start improving your situation. So get some pen and paper, and start tracking your triggers!

 

Healthy Bladder: Foods and Drinks to Avoid this Holiday Season

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

Healthy Bladder: Foods and Drinks to Avoid This Holiday Season

The holidays are just around the corner, and for women dealing with urinary incontinence, all that holiday food can look like a minefield rather than a tasty buffet! They spend their time wondering which foods and drinks are going to bring on a leakage accident, and which are “safe.”

If you have suffered from urinary incontinence for a while, then you probably already know that certain foods and drinks can irritate the bladder and cause urine leakage—definitely not something you want to happen at the big Christmas party.

Have a Healthy Bladder This Holiday Season
The key to preventing urine leakage accidents this holiday season is to stay away from two categories of food and drink. Avoid foods and drinks that:

– are acidic
– contain arylalkylamines (tyrosine, tyramine, tryptophan, aspirate, and phenylalamine)

Foods and drinks in these two categories both tend to irritate inflamed areas of the bladder and urethra, and cause leakage.

Acidic Foods and Drinks to Avoid
There are lots of acidic foods and drinks out there, but during the holiday season these are the ones that you are most likely to encounter:

– alcoholic or carbonated drinks
– spicy food
– citrus fruits or juices
– other fruits including apples, cranberries, grapes, pineapples, strawberries and plums
– tomatoes
– anything that contains vinegar
– caffeinated drinks

Foods and Drinks Containing Arylalkylamines to Avoid
Don’t even bother trying to pronounce the word “arylalkylamines.” Just try to avoid eating or drinking the following at holiday parties:

– Drinks: champagne, beer, wine
– Vegetables: avocados, fava and lima beans, onions
– Fruits: bananas, figs, cranberries, pineapple, prunes, raisins
– Other Goodies: cheese, chicken livers, chocolate, corned beef, mayonnaise, nuts, sour cream, soy sauce, and yogurt

Everything in Moderation
If the list of food and drink to avoid this holiday season looks horrible, don’t panic. Your holiday food doesn’t have to be limited to bread and water. Just avoid overdoing when it comes to eating or drinking the items on the lists above.

Plus, there is help if you overdo it. If you find yourself stuffing down Christmas chocolates because they are too good to avoid, you can dilute the effects of your overindulgence by drinking plenty of water. Drinking plenty of water may reduce urine acidity and dilute any effects of these specific irritants. Another option you can try is an over-the-counter supplement called Prelief. Taking Prelief at mealtime may help reduce bladder irritation and leakage accidents.

The bottom line is this: having dry panties this holiday season just means being a little choosier when it comes to what you eat and drink. You should definitely eat, drink, and be merry during the holidays. If you do all of that with a little discretion, you’ll see more of your friends and less of the bathroom!

Urinary Incontinence and Weight Gain: Breaking the Vicious Cycle

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare

Women suffering from urinary incontinence (UI) find themselves in quite the quandary: they are told to lose weight to decrease urine leakage, but discover that they can’t because they leak urine when they exercise.

Thus begins the vicious cycle where incontinent women can’t exercise for fear of leakage, which causes further weight gain … and even more urine leakage. In fact, one study indicates that almost one-third of middle-aged athletes were incontinent while exercising.

The Runaway Weight Train
It’s not uncommon for women with UI to find themselves riding on the runaway weight train. In addition to the fact that these women can’t exercise because of urine leakage, other issues surrounding UI contribute to weight gain. For instance, many women suffering from urinary incontinence:

– isolate themselves, which leads to loneliness and depression, and then to emotional eating and bingeing
– are menopausal, an age at which weight gain happens more quickly and easily than earlier in life
– are sedentary, thus more likely to have urinary leakage according to the Nurses Health Study

Paradoxically, new studies also indicate that certain classes of women who participate in very strenuous exercise early in life are more likely to suffer from urinary incontinence later in life! It’s easy to see how the vicious cycle of urinary incontinence and weight gain keeps going around, faster and faster.

The Link between Exercise and Urine Leakage
So why do women leak urine during exercise? There are two main reasons. First, women who have UI symptoms usually have weak pelvic floor muscles, which regular exercise does not strengthen or tone. Only exercises like Kegels, which target the pelvic floor muscles, can strengthen these internal muscles.

Second, strenuous exercise that includes bouncing or jumping can put a lot of stress on pelvic floor muscles, causing weakness. Did you know that when you jump your pelvic floor has to withstand the force of 25 pounds of pressure from your internal organs slamming down on it? No wonder many women leak urine just stepping off a curb. This especially affects women who have stress urinary incontinence, meaning they leak when stress is applied to the abdominal cavity.

What to Do If You Leak Urine While Exercising
First and most importantly, don’t stop exercising! Weight gain can significantly worsen UI symptoms, while losing even a few pounds can improve those symptoms. If you leak urine while exercising, it’s time to seek help from a healthcare professional and research your options. There are many conservative therapies that can help you reduce or eliminate UI symptoms, along with minimally-invasive surgical techniques.

Even if you have sought help before to no avail, you should keep asking. Ongoing research has resulted in new therapies that are more effective and may help you return to your regular exercise routine, without urine leakage.

Not sure you’re ready to dive in and seek help? Here are some resources to get you started:

Taking PRIDE in Weight Loss Results in Drier Panties

Dreaming of Dry Panties? Help is Only a Call or Click Away

How to Find the Right Doctor to Treat Your Urinary Incontinence

Some Facts about Urinary Incontinence to Inspire You to Get Help

Ouch! The Rising Cost of Living with Urinary Incontinence

by General Urinary IncontinenceMixed Urinary IncontinencePelvic Organ ProlapseStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Incontinence

As if the constant fear of smelling like urine and the need to laundry daily were not enough, women living with urinary incontinence are starting to feel the financial strain of their condition as well.

According to the National Association for Continence, the average person suffering from urinary incontinence spends approximately $1,000 per year managing their incontinence, which includes the cost of absorbent products, laundry, and pessaries. That’s a hefty sum in these trying economic times, and does not include non-generic drug costs, which can exceed $1,300 per year.

On a national level, the cost of treating urinary incontinence is also on the rise, according to the National Institute of Health. Conservatively estimates put the cost at $20 billion, making the cost of treating this condition on par with that of treating arthritis. The cost is also significantly higher than the cost of treating conditions like breast cancer, pneumonia, or influenza. Not cheap.

At the same time, according to the National Association for Continence, about 17% of women dealing with urinary incontinence use tissues, paper towels, or toilet paper instead of absorbent products designed for urinary incontinence. If you’ve checked prices in the adult diaper section recently, then you know that toilet paper is a lot cheaper to buy than adult diapers, which cost on average $0.70 each and last only 3 hours. Unfortunately, while toilet paper is cheap it doesn’t offer the comfort or security of an adult diaper.

How to Get Yourself Out of Adult Diapers
If you are feeling the financial strain of buying adult diapers but can’t deal with wads of toilet paper anymore, then stop. Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Have I sought help for my urinary incontinence?
2. Have I gotten a clear diagnosis for my condition? (i.e., stress, urge, or mixed urinary incontinence, or pelvic organ prolapse)
3. Have I learned about all the treatment options available for my condition, and have I taken action steps to try one or more of these treatments?

If you answered “No” to any of the above questions, then you may be buying adult diapers when you don’t have to.

To get yourself out of adult diapers, the first step is to ask for help, whether from sympathetic women friends, your spouse, your doctor, or a specialist who treats urinary incontinence.

The second step is to get a clear diagnosis that you can understand. If you either can’t get a clear diagnosis or can’t get an explanation of your condition that makes sense to you, keep asking until you get what you need. You have to learn the causes of your condition before you can treat it. Learn more about the different urinary incontinence conditions on the Wet Matters website.

The last step is to evaluate the different treatment options available, and to try one or more of them. What many women struggling with urinary incontinence don’t realize is that no single treatment works for every woman. You may have to try several different treatments before you find a treatment or a combination of treatments that work for you. The important point is to keep taking action steps toward resolving your incontinence until you find a solution that works for you. Then you can dump those adult diapers in the trash for the last time!

Urinary incontinence – Not Just for Mature Women

by Mixed Urinary IncontinencePelvic Organ ProlapseStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence
If you pay attention to the commercials on TV for urinary incontinence (UI) products, you might think that UI is a condition that only affects “mature” women. Whether you see a gray-haired woman promoting adult diapers or an active grandmother discussing drugs for UI, you start to get the idea that UI and aging go together.But UI isn’t just a symptom of menopause or aging – it can be caused by a number of different factors, and affect women of any age. UI doesn’t just happen to baby boomers, it also happens to women with babies. Childbirth can tear and stretch muscles in the pelvic floor, causing pelvic floor weakness and urinary leakage.

Lifestyle factors can also cause younger women to experience UI. Younger women are at risk for UI if they are:

Overweight: being overweight by even 7-10% can double the chances of UI

Caffeine Drinkers: caffeine is a bladder irritant that can cause urine to leak unexpectedly

Constipated: straining or bearing down on a regular basis weakens the pelvic floor muscles

Involved in Competitive Sports: such as marathon running, triathlons and gymnastics

Smokers: constant coughing puts pressure on the bladder and pelvic floor muscles

Ladies, don’t be fooled by the commercials you see on TV. No matter what your age, if you start leaking urine unexpectedly, it is a sign that your pelvic floor muscles are not as healthy as they could be. Get help now!

Learn whether you have stress urinary incontinence, urge urinary incontinence, mixed urinary incontinence, or even pelvic organ prolapse. Discover how Kegels, lifestyle modifications, and other treatment options can help with your UI symptoms. The good news is that the sooner you start treating your UI, the better your chances are of experiencing complete cure.