Urinary Incontinence

What it is: Urine leaks out before you can get to the bathroom.

Female and Male, Toilet Doors

Causes: Many possible reasons cause women to leak urine. It can happen:

  • After pregnancy or childbirth
  • With increasing age
  • After menopause due to less estrogen
  • After a hysterectomy
  • When the muscles that help to hold or release urine are weakened
  • When a urinary passage is blocked
  • When the nerves that control the bladder are damaged
  • With physical problems associated with aging

Symptoms:

  • Leakage of small amounts of urine during physical movement (coughing, sneezing, exercising).
  • Leakage of large amounts of urine at unexpected times, including during sleep.
  • Urinary frequency and urgency
  • Untimely urination because of physical disability, external obstacles, or problems in thinking or communicating that prevent a person from reaching a toilet.
  • Unexpected leakage of small amounts of urine because of a full bladder.
  • Leakage that occurs temporarily because of a situation that will pass (infection, taking a new medication, colds with coughing).

Tests:

  • Bladder stress test
  • Urinalysis and urine culture
  • Ultrasound
  • Cystoscopy
  • Urodynamics

Treatment:

  • Bladder retraining and Kegal exercises
  • Biofeedback
  • Medicine
  • Neuromodulation
  • Vaginal devices
  • Injections
  • Catheterization