Urinary Incontinence in Women

Urinary incontinence is not only a problem for children. Many adult women experience urinary incontinence. As the age increase, the risk of UI is also increase. Urinary incontinence (UI) can be slightly bothersome or totally debilitating. For some women, the risk of public embarrassment keeps them from enjoying many activities with their family and friends. Urine loss can also occur during sexual activity dan cause tremendous emotional distress. Women experience twice as often as men.



What is urinary incontinence ?

Urinary incontinence is the accidental release of urine. You can’t control when you urinate, as a result, you wet your clothes. This can be embarrassing dan become hygiene and social problems. There are two main kinds of chronic UI. Stress incontinence occurs when you sneeze, cough, lough, jog or do other things that put pressure on your bladder. It is the most common type of UI in women. Otehr type of incontinence is urge incontinnce, also called overactive bladder, happens when you have a strong need to urinate but can’t reach the toilet in time. This can be happen even when your baldder is holding only a small amount of urine. Some women may have no warning before they accidentally leak urine. Other women may leak urine when they drink water or when they hear or touch running water. Mixed incontinence is a combination of stress and urge incontinence. These problems often occur together in older women.



What causes of urinary incontinence?

UI can be caused by many different medical problems. UI may be caused by weak muscles in the lower urinary tract and problem or damage either in the urinary tract or in the nerves that control urinate. Women experience UI twice as often as men. Pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, and the structure of the female urinary tract account for this difference.

Stress incontinence can be caused by childbirth, weightgain, or other condition that strecth the pelvic floor muscles. When these muscles cannot support your bladder properly, the bladder drops down and pushes against vagina. You can not tighten the muscle that close off the urthra. So urine may leak because of the extra pressure on the baldder when you cough, sneeze, laugh, exercise, or do other activities. UI during preganncy can cure by itself. But, if you still have UI 6 months after childbirth, you should consult with your doctor.

Urge incontinence is caused by an overactive bladder muscle that pushes urine out of bladder. It may be caused by irritation of the bladder, emotional stress, or brain condition such as Parkinson’s disease or stroke.

Other causes of UI are : use of certain medicine such as diuretic , urinary tract infection, obesity, high level of blood glucose or calsium, build-up stool in the bowels, not being able to move around, and consume of tea, coffee, and soft drink.



How can it be treated?

Treatment depends on what’s causing the problem and what type of incontinence you have. Some behaviour treatments are used to treat UI, medicine and surgery are other options.

Kegel exercise and bladder training help some types of incontinence. Kegel exercise help strengthen the muscles that control the bladder. They can be done anywhere, any time. It takes 3 to 6 months to see an improvement. To locate the right muscles, try stopping or slowing your urine flow without our muscles, using your stomach, leg or buttock muscles. When you are able to slow or stop the stream of urine, you have located the right muscles. Squeeze your muscles, hold for a count of 10. Relax for a count of 10. Do this 20 times, 3 to 4 times a day. This exercise if effective for stress incontinence.

Women with urge incontinence can do baldder training. They can learn to lengthen the time between urges to go to the bathrooms. You Start by urinating at set intervals, such as 30 minutes to 2 hours – wheter you feel the need to go or not. Then gradually lengthen the time between when you urinate, until you are urinating every 3 to 4 hours.

Medicine can be given to women with UI if the behaviour interventions do not give improvement.



How to prevent urinary incontinence ?

Kegel exercise will strengthen your pelvic muscles and may lower your risk for UI. If you smoke, start to quiting it, becaue it may make you cough less, which then reduce risk of UI.