Urinary Incontinence
Contents
Can’t control your pee (urinary incontinence) mostly occurs in older adults, pregnant women, diabetic patients, and in several other disease.
It is known as urinary incontinence “where an individual is unable to control their pee” which is a common condition in both males and females (1).
There are common types of urinary incontinence which include:
- Stress incontinence: Occurs during physical activities like coughing, sneezing, and heavy exercise.
- urge incontinence: This sudden and strong urge occurs due to involuntary leakage, and allied with an overactive bladder.
- Mixed incontinence: In this both stress and strong urge occur.
- Overflow incontinence: It occurs when a person does not empty their bladder, due to bladder issues, where constant urine leak occur.
Proper diagnosis and treatment help in this, just make sure to take proper and do complete your treatment.
Reasons why you can’t control your pee?
There are several reasons why individuals can’t control their pee, it may be due to bladder issues, and several other reasons are:
Remember it is not a disease, but a symptom of an upcoming illness, where lifestyle and medical issues become a major reason for it.
Some common reasons of urinary incontinence are:
- urinary infection
- overactive bladder (OCB)
- bladder infection
- under stressful situation
- constipation due to medicines
- weaken pelvic floor muscle
These situation are temporary and easy to treat, make sure take doctor consultation before it become serious issue (2)
Risk Factors
Women are more prone of it than men, but some factors that increase the chance of getting urinary incontinence in both include:
- during childbirth
- pregnant women
- menopause period
- older adults
- urinary infection
- bladder get weakened
- genes also play a vital role in it
- lifestyle like tobacco
- diabetic patients
Holding urine for a long time weakens your bladder exit gate, doing this for sometime can back up urine to kidney which leads to kidney damage.
A study shown that progesterone and testosterone levels in body may play a vital role in bladder urine control in both male and female.
Signs of not controlling pee?
The signs of not controlling pee in someone that you can notice some different behaviour in that individual are:
- Leaking urine during day
- sudden leaked or urge to urine
- urine leak without warning
- leak small amount of urine at every time
- urge every time, even bladder is not full
- leak without urinate
If you facing these issues for a long time, make sure consult to your doctor, because ignoring this lead to serious issue (3)
Some individuals do not inform their healthcare specialist due to shame which can makes this “not controlling pee” situation worse.
Treatment of Urinary Incontinence
There are various treatments available, but make sure before it makes it worse to do a stage solution to prevent further complications.
However, the treatment totally depends on what urinary incontinence type you have.
- Stress Incontinence: In this type, exercise can help whereas in treatment pelvic floor exercise is considered to control pee.
A study where 110 women patients were included, where those who performed pelvic floor exercises completed for 1 year.
Results showed that 60% after 3 months felt good, improved and even completely cured the urinary incontinence.
- Urge incontinence: It is similar to stress incontinence where exercises like bladder training are performed.
- Mixed incontinence: In this stress and urge incontinence exercises are performed, focusing on the relief of the symptoms.
- Overflow incontinence: When the bladder is not emptied properly, due to bladder issues, etc leading to frequent urine leaks occuring.
The treatment includes medications and exercises, and the doctor may suggest surgery.
Overall, there are several treatment which strengthen the pelvic floor muscle exercise are:
- kegal exercise
- lifestyle changes like avoid using tobacco, excessive caffeine consumption, etc
- lose weight
- bladder control exercises
- sugery
- medication
Exercise at Home
Some exercises are considered best to control urine, stimulating the brain and triggering the bladder nerve to control urine.
Bladder training and kegal exercise can significantly increase pelvic floor strength (4).
Kegel exercises are one of the best exercises to treat bladder issues, improve bowel control, and strengthen the hip.
How to Prevent Urinary Incontinence?
Prevention is the best way to keep away from urinary incontinence and other diseases.
There are several ways to prevent uncontrolled pee, first you have to understand that a weakened pelvic floor muscle leads to UC.
So you have to focus on strengthening the pelvic floor muscle and avoid triggering factors including:
- Stay hydrated throughout the day which decreases infection risk in the bladder
- don’t hold urine for long time
- wear cotton underwear and avoid tightened underwear
- do not use perfume, powder, deodorants and other personal care items on private area which can increase the risk of infection
- pelvic floor muscle training
- change your unhealthy lifestyle like avoiding using tobacco.
Study demonstrated that pelvic floor muscle training can stop urinary incontinence in late pregnancy and postpartum.
Urinary Incontinence After Childbirth
Actually, leak urine during running, jumping, sneezing, and any other activity after childbirth is very common among women.
It occurs because of weakened pelvic floor muscles, which puts stretch and strain on the pelvic floor after delivery (5).
The pelvic floor is a hammock of muscle that holds up the vagina, urethra, bladder and the uterus, when they stretch they shift out of proper position.
Moreover, Kegal exercise is very effective in mild to moderate urinary incontinence but takes lots of time.
But In case of severe, women should talk to their doctor, doctor may suggest you realign the pelvic floor with sugery.
Down Line
Urinary Incontinence is common among pregnant women after childbirth, older adults, and medical issues individuals.
Kegal exercise is one of the best exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, make sure to do it on UC early stage.
Remember, quit Tabocco, give priority to hygiene to prevent bladder infection.