woman thinking

Women’s Urinary Incontinence and Menopause Don’t Always Go Together

by Find the Right DoctorStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

woman thinkingReally, no kidding. Women’s urinary incontinence can and does regularly occur when mature women reach menopause, but it doesn’t have to. Despite the popular belief that urinary incontinence is “natural” or “normal” when a woman reaches menopause, it simply isn’t true for all women … especially women who have been exercising their pelvic floor muscles.

Why Does Urinary Incontinence Occur with Menopause?
Like almost everything associated with menopause, urinary incontinence occurs because of the hormonal shifts in a woman’s body during this phase of life. Primarily, levels of the female hormone estrogen drop significantly during and after the process of menopause.

This is significant because estrogen is important for keeping the bladder and urethra healthy. Also, lower levels of estrogen in the body contribute to thinning of the urethral, vaginal, and bladder lining. With a thinner lining, the pelvic floor muscles responsible for keeping urine from leaking tend to weaken, which can lead to urinary incontinence.

What Kinds of Urinary Incontinence are Common Post-Menopause?
Women going through menopause or who are post-menopausal most commonly experience either stress urinary incontinence (SUI) or urge urinary incontinence (UUI).

With SUI, urine leaks when you put any pressure on your abdominal cavity, such as when you sneeze, laugh, or step off a curb. This happens because the weakened pelvic floor muscles that are supposed to keep urine in the bladder can’t withstand the sudden increase in abdominal pressure, and allow urine to leak.

With UUI, you experience a sudden and urgent need to urinate, often before you have time to reach the bathroom. This occurs because the bladder muscles squeeze at the wrong time. Many women with UUI feel the urge to go when they hear the sound of running water.

What Should Menopausal Women Do?
If you are experiencing urinary incontinence during or after the process of menopause, seek help from your doctor, whether it be your regular family doctor, your gynecologist, or your urologist.

One of the common conservative medications prescribed for your situation is transvaginal hormones, specifically estrogen. Estrogen, has been shown to increase blood flow, improve nerve function, and rejuvenate the tissues in the urethra and vagina.

Transvaginal hormones have been shown to prevent urinary tract infections in post-menopausal women. These hormones are available in the form of creams, tablets, or a time-release intravaginal ring. Note that transvaginal hormones are different than oral hormone replacement, which may actually worsen incontinence symptoms for some women.

Ready to Get Help?
Here are some resources to help you get help you want and need for your urinary incontinence:

How to Find the Right Doctor for You
Discreet Online Resources
Learn More about Urge Urinary Incontinence
Learn More about Stress Urinary Incontinence

 

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Image courtesy of graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Bladder Health: Did You Know the Bladder Shrinks with Age?

by KegelsStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

Get this:

As you age certain parts of your body get larger (like your nose or ears) while other parts shrink, like your bladder.

Yikes! That’s bad news for those with women’s urinary incontinence. Leaking urine is bad enough, but the fact that the condition might worsen with aging due to a shrinking bladder can be downright depressing.

At age 25, the average person’s bladder can hold about two cups of urine before it has to be emptied. By age 65, that amount decreases to just one cup. That means twice as many trips to the bathroom.

Bladder Health: What to Do About the Shrinking Bladder
So what does a woman do about her incredible shrinking bladder? That’s a good question.

The answer is simple: train your bladder.

If you are otherwise fairly healthy, you can train your bladder so that you go when you want to, rather than when your bladder dictates you must. With bladder training, you are taking steps toward restoring bladder health.

Bladder Training and Bladder Health
The goal of bladder training is to learn to urinate before you have the urgent urge to go, or after you successfully reduce or eliminate the urge. Learning to urinate before the urgent need is upon you helps because running for the bathroom only makes urine leakage worse. Running tends to jiggle the abdominal organs, which increases the pressure on your bladder … and you end up with urine leakage.

With bladder training you focus on increasing the amount of time between urination. This technique is most effective for women with stress urinary incontinence or urge urinary incontinence (also called overactive bladder).

How to Train Your Bladder
To train your bladder, start out by urinating every two hours during the day, whether or not you feel you have to go. After you have successfully mastered this schedule, gradually increase the time between urination by half hour increments, until you reach four hours. Four hours is a reasonable period of time between urination, and at this point you won’t find the urge to go interfering with your life.

During bladder training, if you feel the urge to go during the two hour window, stop what you are doing and remain still. At the same time, perform a pelvic floor muscle contraction, also called a Kegel. Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles several times quickly, and do not relax fully between squeezes. These are similar to “quick Kegels,” and will help suppress the urge to urinate. Also stay calm and take deep breaths. Once the urge has passed, walk slowly to the bathroom while continuing to do some quick Kegels.

Bladder Health Takes Practice
As with all new exercises, bladder training takes practice. Don’t worry if your first attempts at doing this exercise don’t succeed. Just stay focused and keep practicing. Eventually your pelvic floor muscles will become much stronger and you will feel the urgent urge to go less frequently. Also consult your physician to see if there are other conservative therapies that will complement bladder training.

Finally, if you are not sure how to do a correct pelvic floor muscle contraction (and about half of all women are not), check out our step-by-step ebook that gives you step by step instructions.

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

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Understanding Your Water Works

by General Urinary IncontinenceUrge IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceUrinary Incontinence

As they say, “Knowledge is power.” If you have women’s urinary incontinence, power means having knowledge about how your urinary system works. After all, if you want to understand why and how you are leaking urine or experiencing urinary urgency or frequency, then you have to first understand how your urinary system works, right?

So… if you want the knowledge that will empower you about your urinary incontinence, prepare yourself for a VERY SIMPLE anatomy lesson on your urinary system. Don’t worry, we’ll keep it simple. We will only relay the facts you absolutely MUST know to understand how your water works, work!

The Parts of Your Urinary System
When your urinary system is healthy, it acts as a well-synchronized system of organs that remove waste from your body. Your urinary system includes:

  • kidneys
  • bladder
  • ureters
  • urinary sphincters
  • urethra
  • your brain

Yup, your brain is part of your urinary system! Your brain sends and receives signals from your organs, coordinating them all so that you arrive at the bathroom in time to urinate.

How Your Urinary System Works
Your urinary system is not complicated, especially when it is working! The whole process starts with your kidneys, which produce urine by filtering waste products and excess water out of your bloodstream. Your kidneys send this waste material to your bladder via tubes called ureters.

Your bladder then stores the urine until you are ready to urinate. Your bladder, a hollow muscular organ that sits in the bowl of your pelvis, should be able to hold one to two cups of urine for up to two to five hours. As your bladder fills, circular muscles (called sphincters) keep the urine in your bladder, preventing leakage.

When your bladder is full, nerves in your bladder send signals to your brain, which results in your feeling the urge to urinate. Hopefully, at that point, you seek out a bathroom in plenty of time, and spell R-E-L-I-E-F. Specifically, when you are ready to urinate, your brain tells those urinary sphincters to relax and your bladder to contract. As a result, urine leaves the bladder, travels through the urethra, and out of your body (and hopefully into the toilet and not onto your panties)!

Not Too Complicated, Right?
So there you have it… the anatomy and workings of your urinary system. When everything works in synchrony, you have no problems. However, when the signals get mixed up along the way, the result is women’s urinary incontinence. The resulting symptoms include urinary urgency, frequency, and leakage. If you have these symptoms, it’s time to schedule an appointment with your doctor or specialist!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Ladies: Read This if You Wonder What’s Up Down There

by Mixed Urinary IncontinenceOveractive BladderPelvic Floor WeaknessPelvic Organ ProlapsePOPStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

Sometimes there is nothing like another person’s story to really motivate and empower us to take action for our own health. If you are concerned that you may have women’s urinary incontinence–meaning you have symptoms like urinary urgency, frequency, or leakage–the stories in this article may interest you. These stories may also interest you if you feel like something is falling out “down there”… or if your bedroom encounters have gone from “hot to not”!

If you wonder, “What IS up down there?” then read on… these stories may resonate with you plus motivate you to get the help you need!

Are You Like Jane?
Jane, in her mid-thirties, loves how kickboxing is helping restore her figure after she gave birth to her adorable son. What she doesn’t love is the amount of urine she leaks every time she kicks or boxes. In fact, the leakage happens so often that she is thinking of stopping her exercise program altogether.  Here’s what Jane doesn’t know.  She has stress urinary incontinence (also called stress incontinence), the most common form of urinary incontinence, which affects 26 percent of women over age 18 at some point in their lives. Childbirth is a major cause of stress incontinence. Most women with urine leakage wait more than six years to get help. Yet research shows that urinary incontinence in 8 out of 10 women with the condition can be improved. How long will Jane wait?

Jane solved her problem. Find out how by clicking HERE.

Are You Living Karen’s Story?
Sixty-two-year-old Karen has bathrooms on the brain. She has to urinate 10 to 12 times a day and a few times at night. Sometimes she feels a sudden urge and doesn’t make it to the bathroom in time–she then leaks a large volume of urine. Karen has to carry several changes of clothing with her and buys adult diapers in bulk. Her situation is bad, but her embarrassment about seeking help is worse, so she just keeps coping with the condition by herself.

This is what Karen should know. Karen is suffering from the most severe form of overactive bladder, called urge urinary incontinence. About 17 percent of women in the United States have urge incontinence, especially women 50 and older, but less than half seek help. Getting help is important, because about 60 percent of women with urge urinary incontinence also experience depression (though the two conditions are not always related). Help is also important because 70 percent of women with urge incontinence report symptom improvement with conservative treatments like medication or physical therapy.

Discover how Karen stopped leaking urine by reading her story HERE.

Does Jo’s Story Ring a Bell?
Jo, age 40 and very fit, faces a complex situation: she has the same symptoms as Jane and Karen, meaning she leaks urine when she exercises or laughs as well as because of sudden urges. She’s had symptoms for only 11 months but is definitely going to ask her doctor for help, even though she feels embarrassed. Her symptoms are frequent and serious.  What Jo will learn when she talks to her doctor: Jo’s doctor will tell her that she has mixed urinary incontinence, which is a combination of stress incontinence and urge incontinence or overactive bladder. Women with this mixed form of incontinence are more likely to seek help earlier because their symptoms tend to be worse and more frequent than symptoms of women who experience only stress or urge incontinence / overactive bladder. Mixed incontinence has a much stronger negative effect on quality of life, and women with this condition spend much more on laundry bills and adult diapers.

Jo was able to solve both types of urinary incontinence by using the steps outlined HERE.

Do You Share Susan’s Pain?
At age 68, Susan is suddenly experiencing low-back pain, chronic constipation, and the feeling that she is sitting on a ball. Luckily, she already has an appointment with her ob-gyn in a few weeks. She hopes her doctor will tell her what’s happening in her pelvic region.  What Susan’s ob-gyn will tell her at her appointment: Susan feels like she’s sitting on a ball because her pelvic organs have literally popped out of place. She has pelvic organ prolapse, in which one or more of her pelvic organs have moved out of place and now bulge into her vagina.  Susan’s ob-gyn will tell her that she is among the 3 to 6 percent of women who have severe pelvic organ prolapse, and will most likely need surgery to correct the problem. Surprisingly, between 43 and 76 percent of women have some degree of prolapse without knowing it and should be taking preventive action.

Susan was able to solve her pelvic organ prolapse issues with help from her doctor. Find out what Susan did HERE.

Do You Have “Not So Hot” Bedroom Encounters Like Cherie?
At age 42 Cherie is supposed to be in her sexual prime, at least according to the latest women’s magazines, but she feels far from sexy. With two children and a busy career, she considers sex to be at the bottom of her list. Further, sex with her husband just isn’t very pleasurable anymore because Cherie doesn’t feel much sensation in her sexual organs. She avoids sex as much as possible, but her husband is becoming upset and worried. She knows she needs to do something to resolve the situation, but she doesn’t know what.

How Cherie can solve her sexual problem: More than 40 percent of women are dissatisfied with their sex lives, and many of these women have decreased sexual sensation, which is what Cherie is experiencing. This decrease in sensation is often due to weak pelvic floor muscles, and the good news is that these muscles can easily be strengthened with pelvic floor muscle exercises. Studies show that women who do pelvic floor exercises reach orgasm more easily and experience more sexual desire. Cherie can improve her symptoms by following a simple pelvic floor exercise program, such as one from her physical therapist or the at-home program in chapter 7 in our book.

Cherie changed her bedroom encounters from “not, back to hot”… find out how by reading her story HERE.

Read, Plan, Do
Once you have read through these women’s’ stories, you should have a pretty good idea of what is going on with your pelvic health. Then make a plan. Will you call your family doctor for a referral to a urologist or will you visit your ob/gyn? Will you stop in and visit with your family doctor first?

Whatever you plan that takes you closer to solving your pelvic health issues is good. Then you must DO. A plan without action is not a very useful plan. So once you have your plan, do it! Take action for your own pelvic health. You will be surprised how much your quality of life will be affected by improving your pelvic health!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Surprising Causes of Stress Urinary Incontinence

by Stress Urinary IncontinenceUrinary Incontinence

Stress urinary incontinence, also called SUI, is the most common form of urinary incontinence. What is SUI? SUI is the leakage of urine anytime you put stress on your body, such as when you cough, sneeze, laugh, or exercise. Even standing up can cause leakage.

Specifically, this type of leakage occurs whenever your intra-abdominal pressure suddenly increases. SUI happens when the pelvic floor muscles that support the bladder and urethra are weak or because the urethral sphincter, which normally keeps urine from leaking, isn’t as strong as it should be.

Common Causes of SUI
If you have done any research into SUI, then you know that common causes of this form of women’s urinary incontinence include:

– weight gain
– childbirth
– smoking
– constipation
– aging

But what you may not know are the uncommon causes of SUI.

Uncommon Causes of SUI
Sometimes women are surprised by the appearance of SUI symptoms, especially if none of the above-mentioned risk factors apply. However, SUI symptoms can appear under certain unusual circumstances, including:

Timing
Because of hormonal changes, SUI symptoms may appear or worsen the week before your period. During this week, your estrogen levels are lowered, which can lead to decreased pressure around the urethra… possibly leading to leakage.

Pelvic Surgery
Many women are surprised when they develop SUI after a pelvic surgery such as a hysterectomy. Like childbirth, this type of pelvic surgery can weaken the pelvic muscles that support the bladder. The result is sometimes the occurrence of SUI.

Perimenopause or After Stopping HRT
While many women are aware that the onset of menopause can lead to SUI symptoms, what may be surprising is that these same symptoms can occur when a woman is perimenopausal, the transition period before menopause (when the  ovaries stop releasing eggs). During perimenopause, the body experiences a decline in estrogen, which can lead to decreased muscle support for the bladder and urethra. SUI symptoms may result.

The same thing can occur when women wean themselves off hormone replacement therapy because of a similar reduction of estrogen.

Don’t Be Surprised
Hopefully the above-listed uncommon causes of SUI will help you if you are surprised by the appearance of SUI symptoms. There are also other uncommon causes that are too many to list in the scope of this article.

Even though we can’t possibly list every possible cause of urinary incontinence, the good news is that you can (and should) always seek the advice of your favorite healthcare provider when you experience urine leakage. Urinary leakage is NOT normal, at any age, at any point in your life. If you experience urine leakage more than once, it’s time to call your doctor!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

The Importance of Pelvic Floor Health

by KegelsPelvic Floor MusclesPelvic Floor WeaknessPelvic Organ ProlapsePessaryPOPStress Urinary Incontinence

Guest Post by Linda Grayling

A healthy pelvic floor serves as the supporting structure for the pelvic organs, which include the uterus, bladder and rectum. It supports the weight of the baby during pregnancy, and plays a role in core strength and posture. A strong pelvic floor can make childbirth and recovery easier, enhance sexual sensation, and help prevent pelvic floor disorders.

The extra pressure placed on the pelvic floor from supporting the baby throughout pregnancy and the strain of delivery can weaken this support system. This can lead to pain during or the inability to have sex, urinary incontinence, trouble with bowel movements, and prolapsed or displaced pelvic organs.

High-impact activities, heavy lifting, chronic coughing, frequently straining to produce a bowel movement, obesity, and smoking can also contribute to a weakened pelvic floor and increase the chance of developing a pelvic floor disorder.

Stress Urinary Incontinence
Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common pelvic floor disorder that affects at least a third of all women at some point in their lives. It occurs when the stress from normal activities–like exercise, coughing or sneezing, laughing and even sex–triggers accidental urine leakage.

Many women experience minor issues with bladder control every now and then, but when incontinence becomes more frequent or interferes with daily life, they should talk to a doctor. Incontinence is directly related to the strength of the pelvic floor. Weakened pelvic floor muscles increase the odds of developing SUI.

Performing Kegel exercises daily can resolve symptoms of incontinence in just a few weeks. Not only will women stop experiencing embarrassing leakage during sex, but Kegels also heighten sexual sensation and help achieve orgasm.

Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when the pelvic floor is no longer strong enough to hold the pelvic organs in their proper place, allowing them to sag against the vaginal walls–and in severe cases, protrude from the vaginal canal. Prolapse occurs in half of all childbearing women, but is frequently without symptoms, making it a non-issue.

For women who do experience symptoms, they can include a pulling feeling or pelvic pressure, low back pain, problems with bowel movements and urinary problems, pain during sex, and unusual spotting or bleeding. Symptoms can worsen over time.

Women should always try conservative treatments before considering surgery. Strengthening the pelvic floor throughout pregnancy and after childbirth is especially important in avoiding pelvic organ prolapse later in life.

Physical therapists can offer personal instruction on locating, isolating and strengthening the pelvic floor, and may employ biofeedback therapy, pelvic massage or the use of vaginal weights. Doctors may also recommend the use of a vaginal pessary to keep pelvic organs in place.

In recent years, many women have had corrective surgical procedures using transvaginal mesh to strengthen the pelvic floor. The complications associated with transvaginal mesh are not always reversible, and include organ perforation, mesh erosion and the need for revision surgery.

These complications have prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a warning stating that most cases of prolapse can be corrected without mesh and that mesh can expose patients to greater risk.

Women should ask their doctors about all of their surgical repair options, which can include using the patient’s own tissues or biologic products.

Linda Grayling writes for Drugwatch.com. Linda has a number of professional interests, including keeping up with the latest developments in the medical field. Join the Drugwatch community on our Facebook page to find out more.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

 

Embarrassed by Urine Leakage? How Quitting Smoking Can Reduce Bladder Spasms

by Mixed Urinary IncontinenceStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

This blog is part 4 of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

Did you know that smoking is one of the worst culprits when it comes to women’s urinary incontinence, especially those uncontrollable bladder spasms that cause embarrassing urine leakage!

If you smoke, you probably already know that it is one of the least-healthy activities you can do. For instance, women who smoke have four times the risk of developing bladder cancer. Not good. If you are a woman who smokes and suffers from bladder spasms and/or urine leakage, then you are definitely doing yourself a disservice.

The Link Between Smoking and Urine Leakage
Smoking is a risk factor for all three types of women’s urinary incontinence:

  • stress
  • urge (or overactive bladder)
  • mixed

With stress urinary incontinence, the pelvic floor muscles are too weak to hold urine in the bladder when abdominal pressure increases, such as when you cough or sneeze. If you smoke for a long period of time, chances are high that you will develop a chronic smoker’s cough. Each time you cough, you put immense downward pressure on your pelvic floor muscles. As time passes, this constant downward pressure will result in weakened pelvic floor muscles, and eventually urine leakage. Studies show that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop symptoms of stress urinary incontinence.

If you have urge urinary incontinence (also called overactive bladder), you experience frequent and sudden urges to urinate, whether or not you leak urine. These sudden urges are caused by bladder spasms which force urine out of your body when you least expect it. Smoking only worsens these bladder spasms since nicotine is a bladder irritant. More bladder spasms equal a greater frequency and urge to urinate.

With mixed urinary incontinence, you experience the symptoms of both stress and urge urinary incontinence. That means if you smoke, your symptoms will be doubly difficult to handle. In addition to bladder spasms from the nicotine, you can experience leakage every time you cough, sneeze, or exercise. More importantly, women who smoke are 28 percent more likely to develop some form of urinary incontinence!

The moral of this story should be crystal clear: if you want to avoid urine leakage, bladder spasms, and all other symptoms of urinary incontinence, stop smoking! If you feel you cannot stop smoking on your own, ask your doctor for help. Many smoking cessation methods are now available, and can provide the support you need to stop smoking today, and relieve your symptoms of urinary incontinence.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: The Power of Knowing Yourself

by General Urinary IncontinenceOveractive Bladder

When you experienced your first symptom of women’s urinary incontinence, how did you react? Did you try your best to ignore the whole event? If you pulled the “ostrich act” then you are in the majority. More than 50% of women who have urinary incontinence don’t seek help and do their best to act like “nothing is wrong.”

Whether or not something is actually “wrong” is perhaps debatable, but what isn’t up for debate is that fact that you will have to cope with your symptoms of urinary incontinence. Coping with your symptoms may mean wearing absorbent pads, carrying around a change of clothes, or making note of the location of every bathroom in town! These are helpful ways to deal with your symptoms, but you can do one thing that will help even more:

~~ Know thyself! ~~

The Power of Knowing Yourself
All women who have urinary incontinence suffer from one of three forms: stress, overactive bladder/urge, or mixed. Getting an accurate diagnosis is the best way to figure out which type of urinary incontinence is affecting you. However, if you are not quite ready to get help from your doctor, you can still take an empowering step towards coping with your symptoms by learning more about your own condition.

When you know the specifics of your condition, you can better anticipate when urinary incontinence symptoms will occur, which will help you cope with those symptoms. For instance, here are some aspects about your condition that you may want to know:

  • What triggers your urinary incontinence?
  • Do you suffer from frequency, urinary leakage, or both?
  • How often do you feel the urge to urinate?
  • Do you feel the urge to urinate at night? How many times per night?
  • When you leak urine, how much do you leak?
  • Will absorbent pads prevent leakage accidents from showing, or do you need to carry a change of clothes with you?
  • When you feel the urge to urinate, how much time before urine starts to flow?
  • Do certain foods or drinks worsen your symptoms?
  • Does doing a correct pelvic floor muscle contraction (Kegel) delay urge or urinary leakage?

These are just a few of the aspects of your condition that can help you anticipate and even prevent symptoms. To best understand your condition, keep a journal of your symptoms for a week or two. Just toss a notepad and pen into your purse, and jot down symptoms as they occur. You might be surprised at what you discover. For instance, one woman was surprised to discover that she felt the urge to urinate more than 15 times per day. Without the journal, she would have estimated a much lower number. In addition, the same woman was surprised to discover the variety of different triggers for her symptoms–everything from her morning cup of coffee to the sound of running water and cold weather!

While keeping this kind of journal for a few weeks make be a bit inconvenient, you will most likely find that the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience. Even better, if and when you decide to seek help from a medical professional, this journal will give your doctor a very clear idea of your symptoms. With this information, your doctor will be able to diagnose your condition more accurately and quickly. That’s definitely a win-win situation!

 

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Mixed Women’s Urinary Incontinence: The Best and Worst of Both Worlds

by Mixed Urinary IncontinenceOveractive BladderUrinary Incontinence

If you have women’s urinary incontinence, specifically mixed urinary incontinence, then you probably know exactly what the phrase “The Best and Worst of Both Worlds” means. Women with mixed urinary incontinence suffer from symptoms of both stress and urge incontinence. Women with stress urinary incontinence leak urine every time they put stress on the bladder or abdominal cavity, such as when sneezing, laughing, coughing, or exercising. With urge urinary incontinence (or the milder form, overactive bladder), women experience strong and sudden urges to urinate, often resulting in a urinary accident with copious amounts of leakage. Women with urge incontinence or overactive bladder also have to urinate frequently, and often at night.

The Worst of Both Worlds
Women with mixed urinary incontinence suffer the symptoms of both stress and urge incontinence–at the same time! When it comes to women’s urinary incontinence, having the symptoms of mixed incontinence is like living in the “worst of both worlds.” These women feel like they have to be prepared for urinary leakage at ANY time! Women with mixed incontinence have symptoms that are both more severe AND more frequent than women who have only stress or urge incontinence. In fact, studies show that women with mixed incontinence rate their quality of life as being more strongly affected than women with the other types of urinary incontinence. Unfortunately, about one-third of women with urinary incontinence suffer from this form. That’s the bad news. That truly is the worst of both worlds!

The Best of Both Worlds
Now here’s the good news: women with mixed urinary incontinence are more likely to seek medical help for their condition sooner than their counterparts with only stress or urge incontinence. Studies demonstrate that the severity of a woman’s urinary incontinence symptoms is a good predictor of her likelihood for seeking help. Another bit of good news is this: because women with mixed incontinence are more likely to seek medical help, physicians have more experience helping women with this condition. What this means for you is that, should you seek medical help for your mixed incontinence, your doctor is likely have plenty of experience with your condition and know the available treatments.

How Your Doctor Will Treat Your Mixed Urinary Incontinence
With mixed urinary incontinence, your physicians first task to is determine which form of incontinence (stress or urge) is dominant in your case. Your doctor will then recommend options to treat the more dominant condition first. Once that condition has been addressed, your doctor will then suggest therapies for the secondary condition. For instance, suppose your form of mixed urinary incontinence is dominated by stress incontinence. This means you are more likely to leak urine when you put stress on your bladder and abdomen, such as when you cough, sneeze, laugh, exercise, or step off a curb. You also have urge incontinence, but you leak urine less often due to this condition. In your case, your doctor will recommend treatment options for stress incontinence first, which might include pelvic floor retraining, lifestyle and behavior modification, or even surgery. Once you find a combination of treatments that alleviate your stress urinary incontinence symptoms to your satisfaction, your physician will then address your urge incontinence symptoms. For instance, she may recommend that you take medication to relieve your urge incontinence symptoms.

Make sense? Good. So … if you are suffering from mixed urinary incontinence, now is the time to pick up the phone and call your doctor. Your quality of life is most probably being severely impacted by this condition, and there is no need to suffer any longer. We strongly encourage you to seek medical guidance now so that you can look forward to a time in your near future when you will be high and dry!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Overcoming Your Fear of Surgery

by Find the Right DoctorGeneral Urinary IncontinencePessary

When it comes to women’s urinary incontinence, embarrassment tops the list of reasons that affected women don’t seek help. Another major reason these women don’t seek help is this: fear of surgery. Affected women are afraid that seeking a medical diagnosis from a physician will automatically lead to surgery. Many people, not just women with urinary incontinence, have a fear of surgery. Luckily, these fears are mostly unjustified.

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Try Conservative Methods First
Do you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence, and are you afraid that your doctor might suggest that you have surgery? If so, then we have good news for you. Unless your condition is very severe, most physicians will suggest that you try the least invasive and most conservative therapies first. These include pelvic floor retraining, lifestyle changes (such as weight loss, diet changes, and smoking cessation), bladder retraining, taking medication, using a pessary, and acupuncture. They may even suggest you try a combination of these therapies until you find what works to relieve your symptoms.

An interesting note about these conservative therapies is that they are more effective when used early on–that is, as soon as you notice the first signs of pelvic floor weakness. These therapies are effective for relieving symptoms of all three types of women’s urinary incontinence, as well as alleviating symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse and decreased sexual sensation. This information should definitely motivate you to seek medical help as soon as you begin experiencing problems with your pelvic health.

Overcoming Your Fear of Surgery
But what happens if conservative therapies are not effective for relieving your symptoms? In that case, you may need surgery to address the problem. If your condition is severe, such as when one or more of your pelvic organs have significantly shifted out of position (prolapsed), your physician may recommend surgery as the first step towards curing your condition. Or you may find that conservative therapies are effective for many years, but cease to work over time. This can occur because of aging, menopause, and the continued downward pull of gravity on your pelvic organs. In this case, you may also need surgery to alleviate symptoms that were formerly relieved by conservative therapies.

If your physician does recommend surgery, don’t hit the panic button just yet. We have some statistics about women’s pelvic surgeries that should help you breathe a sigh of relief, especially if you have a fear of surgery. We have categorized the different types of surgeries according to the condition treated, and we describe the level of invasiveness for each procedure as well as the success rate. Minimally-invasive surgeries are usually done as outpatient procedures, and you often go home the same day. Surgical procedures with a moderate level of invasiveness may require a short stay in the hospital.

Surgeries for Stress Urinary Incontinence
Number of Procedures: 6
Names: Transobturator tape, single-incision transobturator tape, tension-free vaginal tape, pubovaginal sling, Burch procedure, Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz procedure
Invasiveness: The first three procedures are minimally invasive, the last three are considered moderate.
Success Rates: No procedure has less than a 66% success rates, and most have success rates between 70% and 95%.

Surgeries for Overactive Bladder, Urge Urinary Incontinence, Urge-Dominant Mixed Incontinence, and Urinary Retention
Number of Procedures: 1
Name: Sacral neuro-modulation
Invasiveness: Minimal
Success Rates: 31% to 65%

Surgeries for Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Number of Procedures: 4
Names: Cystocele repair (bladder hernia), rectocele repair (large intestine hernia), enterocele repair (small intestine hernia), sacral colpopexy (vaginal vault prolapse)
Invasiveness: All are considered moderate
Success Rates: 80% to 96%

As you can see, almost all the surgeries have a very high success rate, and the majority are minimally-invasive. This list of women’s pelvic surgeries should give you a starting point for discussing your surgical options with your physician. If you have a significant fear of surgery or simply want to avoid surgery for any reason, you may wish to seek a second opinion from another specialist. Additionally, you may want to ask your physician whether a different type or a different combination of conservative therapies would be useful to try before having surgery. For many women, the first few conservative therapies tried are not completely successful at relieving symptoms. The women who have the most success with conservative therapies are those willing to try multiple approaches or multiple combinations of therapies until they find something that works. Persistence is often the key to success when working with conservative therapies.

If you ultimately decide to undergo surgery for your pelvic health condition, rest assured that success rates are high and most procedures pose a fairly low risk. Be sure to discuss any questions or concerns with your physician until you feel completely comfortable with any proposed surgery. In this case, educating yourself about your condition and your options is the best medicine!

 

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3 Ways to Stop Stressing About Stress Urinary Incontinence

by Urinary Incontinence

The funny thing about stress urinary incontinence, or SUI, is that life stress has very little to do with causing the form of urinary leakage. However, this type of women’s urinary incontinence (one of the three major types) can create a lot of stress for affected women.

What is Stress Urinary Incontinence?
In short, the “stress” in stress urinary incontinence refers to any kind of stress or pressure put on the abdominal cavity, especially the bladder, which causes urine leakage. You know you have SUI if it causes you to leak urine anytime you put stress on your abdominal cavity by coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercising. Depending on the severity of your condition, sometimes even a small change in body posture, such as stepping off a curb or standing up, can cause urine leakage. All of these changes to posture can put stress on your abdominal cavity.

How Can You Stop Stressing About SUI?
When it comes to SUI, or any form of urinary incontinence, you have three basic options:

1. Cope with your condition by yourself without medical advice
2. Get help from a medical adviser and use conservative means
3. Use a surgical solution to resolve your symptoms if your condition is more severe

Obviously these options start in the “do it yourself” category. There is nothing wrong with option one — coping with your condition by yourself — except that without a thorough medical screening you don’t have a precise diagnosis of your condition. In addition, you could be cheating yourself of conservative medical solutions that can make your life more comfortable and save you money (and embarrassment)! If you choose option one, you certainly won’t be alone. Almost half of all women with urinary incontinence never seek help. Those that seek help wait a long time … on average almost seven years!

What is good about the first option is that you will likely educate yourself about your condition, and become a strong self-health advocate. However, we encourage all women affected by urinary leakage to take an additional step once they have armed themselves with knowledge: get help! To be sure, knowledge is power. When you are struggling with SUI, knowledge is the power to help you speak intelligently and honestly with your doctor about your condition. This is the second option. In turn, by seeking help you empower your doctor to support you and relieve symptoms with conservative medical options including pelvic floor muscle retraining, medication, acupuncture, and suggested lifestyle changes.

In addition, if necessary, by seeking help from your doctor you discover if you might need a surgical solution to resolve your symptoms. While most of us don’t like to think about having surgery, if a simple outpatient surgery could alleviate or resolve your symptoms, wouldn’t you want to know?

We Applaud “Do It Yourself” Women!
We really do. If you are a do-it-yourself kind of woman, we applaud your efforts! We also encourage you to go one step further and just get some feedback from a trusted medical source. This expands your powers of self-healing more than you might realize. So do educate yourself by reading this blog, downloading our ebook, or just learning more about your condition. Then go one step further (maybe eventually two steps!) and get some medical feedback. You will be glad you did because it will help you stop stressing about stress urinary incontinence!

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Estrogen Helps with SUI Symptoms

by Urinary Incontinence

If you suffer from stress urinary incontinence (SUI), the most common form of women’s urinary incontinence, and you are interested in conservative approaches to treating your symptoms, you may want to consider using estrogen. This form of conservative therapy is especially useful for post-menopausal women since estrogen production decreases after menopause.

How Estrogen Works for SUI Symptoms
Estrogen works to relieve symptoms of SUI primarily by thickening the urethral lining, which often helps supports the bladder and decreases symptoms of stress incontinence. The use of this hormone, especially when used long-term, has been shown to improve nerve function, rejuvenate urethral and vaginal tissues, and increase blood flow in the pelvic region. Estrogen has also been shown to decrease the chances of urinary tract infections in postmenopausal women.

While research does not necessarily back up the effectiveness of estrogen for treating symptoms of stress incontinence, the Mayo Clinic indicates that a large percentage of women find estrogen useful for decreasing urinary leakage.One of the benefits of estrogen therapy for stress incontinence is that it is available in multiple forms: cream, tablets, or a time release intravaginal ring. Studies show that the cream is the most effective form, followed by tablets and the ring.

Note that estrogen as used to treat stress incontinence is different from oral hormone replacement, which actually may worsen urinary leakage symptoms for some women. Most women work no side effects from estrogen when used specifically to treat stress incontinence.

If you are interested in using estrogen to reduce your symptoms of stress urinary incontinence, ask your urologist or specialist to find out if this conservative therapy is right for you.

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