Urinary Incontinence

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

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