What is It?

Urinary Incontinence or otherwise known as involuntary urination is when any amount of urine comes out uncontrollably.  It can create quite a nuisance to your quality of life for Women’s and Men’s Liberty, especially in geriatric patients.  It can be fairly common and also stressful for those dealing with it.  Some children suffer from what is called Enuresis or Nocturnal Enuresis.  This is when they can’t control their bladder during the night, which is fairly common as well.  

What Are the Different Types of Urinary Incontinence?

Urinary Incontinence can happen in six different ways.  

• First, is urge incontinence.  Urge incontinence occurs when a person simply can’t make it to the toilet in time.  This symptom comes on quickly and happens because the nerve passage from the brain to the bladder is damaged.  When this happens there is a sudden contraction that a person cannot consciously contain.  This is thought of Over Active Bladder.
• Secondly, there is stress incontinence.  This happens when the bladder leaks while coughing, sneezing, exercising, or laughing.  Basically any kind of movement that may put pressure on your bladder. The reason that this occurs is that your pelvic muscles have been damaged.
• Next, is overflow incontinence.  What happens, in this case, is the urine built up in your body exceeds the size of your bladder.  This often happens when people are drinking alcohol and don’t want to “break the seal”.
• Then, we have reflex incontinence.  This one is tricky because the person doesn’t know they need to urinate when dealing with reflex incontinence.  The reason for this is because there is a leak in the bladder, ureter, or urethra. Another reason this might occur and from an abnormal opening between the bladder and a separate structure.  
• Next up is incontinence from surgery.  When you have certain types of surgeries such as C-sections, rectal surgery, or hysterectomies; some patients suffer incontinence.  
• Lastly, we have mixed incontinence which is when urge types and stress types of incontinence come together.  

Who is Affected by It?

Urinary Incontinence is most seen in elderly people.   There are about 13 million Americans who suffer from it, and 80 percent of those are women.  Half of the elderly people in the U.S. suffer from Urinary Incontinence.  Everybody who suffers from this may face emotional distress along with physical.  Often times patients suffering from incontinence will refrain from social activities for fear of an embarrassing incident.

The good news is that 80 percent of those afflicted with Urinary Incontinence can be cured.

How to Deal with It?

Remember Urinary Incontinence is not a disease it’s a symptom.  So you need to get the right diagnosis to then tailor your treatment method or plan.  Occasionally a simple change to your diet or getting off certain meds can do the trick.  However, most of the time you’ll have to combine modifying behaviors along with medicine to treat it.

You can introduce what is called pelvic muscle re-education, or use absorbent products and collection devices.  Only 1 in 12 people affected by Urinary Incontinence seeks help despite the fact that most people can be cured. So if you are suffering from incontinence don’t be afraid to speak up and get on the path back to a healthy urinary system.