Overview
Urinary Incontinence is the unintentional leakage of urine. Stress urinary incontinence occurs due to any activity that puts pressure on your bladder such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, running, or lifting heavyweight, resulting in urine leakage.
Stress urinary incontinence is more common in women than in men. You may isolate yourself, feel embarrassed, or limit your work and social life if you have stress incontinence. You may also avoid physical activities, but stress urinary Incontinence can be improved by treatment.
Symptoms of stress urinary incontinence
If you have Stress urinary incontinence, you may have urine leakage when you:
- Cough
- Sneeze
- Laugh
- Exercise
- Lift heavyweights
- Have sex
Is it normal that you have leakage when you sneeze?
No, this is not normal. Many people incorrectly believe this is a normal part of aging.
Causes of Stress urinary incontinence
-
- Childbirth: Multiple pregnancies and deliveries can cause injury to the pelvic floor causing weakness in the muscles that help you control your urine. It can also cause changes to the nerves that stimulate the pelvic floor.
- Lifestyle: Stress incontinence can be worse for certain types of lifestyles. If you’re on your feet a lot for work, like hairdressers, nurses, doctors, or if you’re doing intense physical activity like Cross Fit, where you’re doing a lot of squatting, those things can worsen stress incontinence.
- Smoking: Smoking can also worsen stress incontinence.
Things we can do to help to improve Stress Incontinence
There are things we can do to help.
1. physical therapy or Kegel exercises. Many of you have probably heard of Kegel exercises and have tried to do them yourself, but I bet most of you are not doing them correctly. It often helps to see a certified pelvic floor physical therapist who helps with pelvic floor dysfunction and can teach you how to do these exercises correctly, and this can significantly help people.
Other options are available like incontinence pessaries or dishes that you can place in the vagina that up the urethra to help prevent leakage when you have those stressful activities, or there are surgical options which you should discuss with your urologist.
