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.
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.