Got Women’s Urinary Incontinence? Tests You Can Expect

If you have women’s urinary incontinence and are finally ready to discuss your condition, we congratulate you! One of the best ways that you can prepare for your doctor’s appointment is to understand the tests your doctor will likely perform to assess your condition. These tests are designed to help your doctor discover which form of urinary incontinence you experience: stress, urge (or overactive bladder), or mixed urinary incontinence. Learn about the three different types of women’s urinary incontinence here. In addition, these tests will inform your doctor about your symptoms, whether you have urinary urgency, leakage, or frequency (or all three)!

Tests for Women’s Urinary Incontinence
Don’t worry, none of the tests your doctor will perform to assess your urinary incontinence is painful. At the most, these tests are slightly embarrassing, but then, most women already feel embarrassed discussing their urinary incontinence with their doctors. If you have overcome that embarrassment and actually have an appointment with your doctor, these tests will be a breeze.

Initial Tests
Your doctor or specialists (urologist or ob/gyn or gerontologist) will first discuss your symptoms and condition. In addition, your doctor will perform some initial tests, which usually include a physical examination, a urinalysis, and a post-void residual. Here’s what each of those tests involves:

– Physical Exam: The physical examination will include a pelvic evaluation, so you may wish to take extra care with your hygiene prior to your appointment. This physical exam helps your doctor determine the anatomy associated with your incontinence. During this evaluation, the specialist will determine whether any of your pelvic organs have prolapsed or fallen out of place, which may contribute to your urinary incontinence issues.

– Urinalysis: This initial test helps your doctor rule out infection or blood in the urine as the cause of your urinary incontinence. You will be asked to provide a urine sample for testing. If the specialist suspects that you have a urinary tract infection, he or she will recommend a specific treatment plan to resolve the infection and send the sample for further testing. If blood is found in your urine, further testing may be needed to determine the cause.

– Post-void residual: This test confirms whether you are fully emptying your bladder when you urinate. A catheter or ultrasound machine is used to measure the urine remaining in your bladder after urination. A normal post-void residual is less than 100 ml

Further Testing
If your doctor is unable to fully determine the cause of your urinary incontinence, he or she may perform further tests. These can include a cystoscopy, urodynamic testing, and asking you to keep a bladder diary. These tests will include the following:

– Cystoscopy: A cytoscope is a thin, lighted viewing instrument that is inserted into the urethra and bladder. Your doctor will use this instrument to examine the interior lining of the bladder and urethra for issues, other than weakened pelvic floor muscles, that may be affecting your continence.

– Urodynamic Testing: This minimally invasive test focuses on your bladder’s ability to fill and empty. It measures how much your bladder can hold, how much pressure builds inside your bladder as it stores urine, and how full it is when you feel the urge to urinate. Urodynamic testing helps your doctor determine how well you might respond to certain treatments.

– Voiding Diary: Your physician may ask you to keep a voiding diary as part of your evaluation. This diary will allow you to communicate clearly with him or her about the status of your bladder, including how frequently you urinate during the day and at night, how much fluid you drink daily, and the volume of urine leakage you experience. The voiding diary will most likely also educate you about your own condition, too. Many women who keep a voiding diary are surprised at how frequently they urinate or have leakage accidents.

So there you have it. Now you have a better understanding of the tests your doctor or specialist may run to fully understand the causes of your women’s urinary incontinence. Knowledge is power, and at this point you are armed with the knowledge to confidently go to your doctor’s appointment to get on the path the relief!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Ladies: Read This if You Wonder What’s Up Down There

Sometimes there is nothing like another person’s story to really motivate and empower us to take action for our own health. If you are concerned that you may have women’s urinary incontinence–meaning you have symptoms like urinary urgency, frequency, or leakage–the stories in this article may interest you. These stories may also interest you if you feel like something is falling out “down there”… or if your bedroom encounters have gone from “hot to not”!

If you wonder, “What IS up down there?” then read on… these stories may resonate with you plus motivate you to get the help you need!

Are You Like Jane?
Jane, in her mid-thirties, loves how kickboxing is helping restore her figure after she gave birth to her adorable son. What she doesn’t love is the amount of urine she leaks every time she kicks or boxes. In fact, the leakage happens so often that she is thinking of stopping her exercise program altogether.  Here’s what Jane doesn’t know.  She has stress urinary incontinence (also called stress incontinence), the most common form of urinary incontinence, which affects 26 percent of women over age 18 at some point in their lives. Childbirth is a major cause of stress incontinence. Most women with urine leakage wait more than six years to get help. Yet research shows that urinary incontinence in 8 out of 10 women with the condition can be improved. How long will Jane wait?

Jane solved her problem. Find out how by clicking HERE.

Are You Living Karen’s Story?
Sixty-two-year-old Karen has bathrooms on the brain. She has to urinate 10 to 12 times a day and a few times at night. Sometimes she feels a sudden urge and doesn’t make it to the bathroom in time–she then leaks a large volume of urine. Karen has to carry several changes of clothing with her and buys adult diapers in bulk. Her situation is bad, but her embarrassment about seeking help is worse, so she just keeps coping with the condition by herself.

This is what Karen should know. Karen is suffering from the most severe form of overactive bladder, called urge urinary incontinence. About 17 percent of women in the United States have urge incontinence, especially women 50 and older, but less than half seek help. Getting help is important, because about 60 percent of women with urge urinary incontinence also experience depression (though the two conditions are not always related). Help is also important because 70 percent of women with urge incontinence report symptom improvement with conservative treatments like medication or physical therapy.

Discover how Karen stopped leaking urine by reading her story HERE.

Does Jo’s Story Ring a Bell?
Jo, age 40 and very fit, faces a complex situation: she has the same symptoms as Jane and Karen, meaning she leaks urine when she exercises or laughs as well as because of sudden urges. She’s had symptoms for only 11 months but is definitely going to ask her doctor for help, even though she feels embarrassed. Her symptoms are frequent and serious.  What Jo will learn when she talks to her doctor: Jo’s doctor will tell her that she has mixed urinary incontinence, which is a combination of stress incontinence and urge incontinence or overactive bladder. Women with this mixed form of incontinence are more likely to seek help earlier because their symptoms tend to be worse and more frequent than symptoms of women who experience only stress or urge incontinence / overactive bladder. Mixed incontinence has a much stronger negative effect on quality of life, and women with this condition spend much more on laundry bills and adult diapers.

Jo was able to solve both types of urinary incontinence by using the steps outlined HERE.

Do You Share Susan’s Pain?
At age 68, Susan is suddenly experiencing low-back pain, chronic constipation, and the feeling that she is sitting on a ball. Luckily, she already has an appointment with her ob-gyn in a few weeks. She hopes her doctor will tell her what’s happening in her pelvic region.  What Susan’s ob-gyn will tell her at her appointment: Susan feels like she’s sitting on a ball because her pelvic organs have literally popped out of place. She has pelvic organ prolapse, in which one or more of her pelvic organs have moved out of place and now bulge into her vagina.  Susan’s ob-gyn will tell her that she is among the 3 to 6 percent of women who have severe pelvic organ prolapse, and will most likely need surgery to correct the problem. Surprisingly, between 43 and 76 percent of women have some degree of prolapse without knowing it and should be taking preventive action.

Susan was able to solve her pelvic organ prolapse issues with help from her doctor. Find out what Susan did HERE.

Do You Have “Not So Hot” Bedroom Encounters Like Cherie?
At age 42 Cherie is supposed to be in her sexual prime, at least according to the latest women’s magazines, but she feels far from sexy. With two children and a busy career, she considers sex to be at the bottom of her list. Further, sex with her husband just isn’t very pleasurable anymore because Cherie doesn’t feel much sensation in her sexual organs. She avoids sex as much as possible, but her husband is becoming upset and worried. She knows she needs to do something to resolve the situation, but she doesn’t know what.

How Cherie can solve her sexual problem: More than 40 percent of women are dissatisfied with their sex lives, and many of these women have decreased sexual sensation, which is what Cherie is experiencing. This decrease in sensation is often due to weak pelvic floor muscles, and the good news is that these muscles can easily be strengthened with pelvic floor muscle exercises. Studies show that women who do pelvic floor exercises reach orgasm more easily and experience more sexual desire. Cherie can improve her symptoms by following a simple pelvic floor exercise program, such as one from her physical therapist or the at-home program in chapter 7 in our book.

Cherie changed her bedroom encounters from “not, back to hot”… find out how by reading her story HERE.

Read, Plan, Do
Once you have read through these women’s’ stories, you should have a pretty good idea of what is going on with your pelvic health. Then make a plan. Will you call your family doctor for a referral to a urologist or will you visit your ob/gyn? Will you stop in and visit with your family doctor first?

Whatever you plan that takes you closer to solving your pelvic health issues is good. Then you must DO. A plan without action is not a very useful plan. So once you have your plan, do it! Take action for your own pelvic health. You will be surprised how much your quality of life will be affected by improving your pelvic health!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

What to Do When Your Doctor Can’t or Won’t Help with Women’s Urinary Incontinence

We recently received a comment on our blog from a wonderfully courageous and honest woman about the often embarrassing and humiliating experience of seeking medical help for urinary urgency, leakage, or frequency–in a word, urinary incontinence. If you read our blog regularly, then you know that we are big advocates of women getting an accurate diagnosis and help from a qualified medical professional for urinary incontinence.

What If Your Doctor Can’t Help You?
But sometimes seeking help from a doctor doesn’t always work out the way we think it will. While we would all like to think that our doctor has a sympathetic bedside manner, is chock-full of solutions, and can “fix” our problems right away, sometimes that doesn’t happen. As the woman points out in her comment on the blog, even if you build up the courage to seek help from your doctor, there can be two negative outcomes from this kind of encounter with your doctor:

1. Your doctor does not feel you have a medical problem, and hence offers no medical diagnosis and no solutions.
2. Your doctor gives you a specific diagnosis of urinary incontinence, but has no solutions to offer.

Now those are definite show-stoppers. What do you do now? You’ve spent all that time and energy working up the courage to talk to your doctor… and the results are definitely less-than-satisfying, if not downright depressing!

What to Do Next…
If either of the above options happens when you seek help from your doctor for symptoms like urinary urgency, leakage, or frequency, don’t despair (or, don’t spend more than five minutes having a pity party!). You have multiple options, and will need to choose the one or ones that best fit your situation.

One additional factor noted in the blog comment is that women who experience either of the above mentioned outcomes from their doctor tend to be highly disappointed, and also much less likely to seek a second opinion. They have, as it were, used up their reservoir of courage, and don’t have any more to spare.

However, there are actions that you can take, even if you feel like you have no more courage to seek help from additional sources. Here are three options that we know work for women after a “failed” encounter with a doctor.

1. Ask for a Referral Before You Leave
If you don’t get the answers or solutions for women’s urinary incontinence you seek while sitting in your doctor’s office, you can and should take action before you leave the office. Chances are that you have seen your family doctor or general practitioner, who may not have the resources or experience to properly diagnose your condition or offer you appropriate therapies. What your family doctor can do for you is give you a referral to a urologist, gynecologist, or other specialist who is more likely to be able to help you. After all, a urologist is more likely to know how to help you with urinary incontinence than your family doctor.

2. Get an Appointment Before You Leave
With most referral systems these days, the office of the referred doctor will likely call you rather than requiring you to call them. This means that you do not need to gather up the courage to make another appointment–the referral system will likely take care of that for you. You can even ask your doctor if this is how your healthcare network’s system works. If not–or regardless of how the system works–you can ask your doctor if his or her staff can call the urologist’s office–right then and there–and make the appointment for you. Most doctors are more than happy to accommodate. This simplifies your life and helps you avoid the embarrassment of making another appointment.

3. Get the Pertinent Medical Records
While you are still at the doctor’s office, you can take one further step to reduce embarrassment and simplify your life. Ask your doctor to print out the medical record of that day’s visit, plus any other relevant medical history. Bring that record with you to your appointment with the urologist to avoid repeating yourself to the urologist. Some doctor’s offices can also simply forward the records to the specialist’s office. However, we recommend getting a copy for your own records, just in case the records fail to get forwarded in time for your next appointment.

How to Prevent Negative Outcomes
If you have not yet seen your family doctor for help with your urinary incontinence, you can take some steps to prepare for your appointment and, quite possibly, avoid the negative outcomes described previously.

1. Keep a Bladder Diary
A bladder diary is just how it sounds. It is a record of your bladder behavior and habits. You record when and how often your urinate, how much you urinate, how often you experience urge without leakage, how often you have leakage accidents, and so forth. For more information on how to keep a bladder diary, click HERE.

We recommend keeping a bladder diary for a minimum of a week. You may be surprised at how often you have to urinate, or how many lifestyle factors can trigger your urinary incontinence. Once you have a week’s worth of data in a bladder diary, you are ready to visit your family practitioner. The bladder diary will “do all the talking” for you, and let your doctor know immediately whether you have bladder issues or not. In addition, we recommend that you do some research on your own to determine what is and is not “normal” when it comes to urinary habits. Our book, A Woman’s Guide to Pelvic Health, contains a lot of data on the three types of urinary incontinence–including what is normal. Armed with this knowledge, you can confidently speak with your doctor about your condition and insist on getting the help you need, even if that means getting a referral.

2. Call Your Family Doctor for a Referral
Depending on the kind of relationship you have with your family practitioner, you may possibly be able to avoid the embarrassment of having two conversations about your urinary incontinence: one with your family doctor and the other with a specialist. If you have a close and trusting relationship with your family practitioner, you may be able to simply call that doctor’s office and get a referral to a specialist. If you are able to do so, we still recommend that you educate yourself about your condition and keep a bladder diary prior to seeing the specialist. Both will help you get the answers and solutions you need for your urinary incontinence.

3. Ask a Friend for a Referral
If you know of friends who have seen doctors who have been helpful and sympathetic about urinary incontinence, ask those friends for the names of those doctors. Then make an appointment. If you are too “wiped out” after a negative first encounter with a doctor, ask your friend to help you make an appointment. Sometimes just having a friend standing next to you can give you the courage and support you need. You can go one step further and ask your friend to accompany you on your visit. If your friend has already been through the process of diagnosing and treating urinary incontinence, she will know the questions to ask as well as the answers you need to have ready for your doctor. Sometimes a good buddy is the best medicine!

A Little Preparation Goes a Long Way
As you can see, being prepared for appointments with medical professionals can help you make the most out of each encounter. Whether you have already seen your family doctor or not, you can take steps to get the solutions you need from any healthcare professional. Hopefully the tips in this article will be helpful and supportive to women who desperately want to get help for their urinary incontinence, but for some reason have not been able to obtain that help!
If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Diet Modification for Women’s Urinary Incontinence – Avoiding Bladder Irritants

This blog is part 6 of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

One popular adage says, “You’ve got egg on your face” … if you’ve got women’s urinary incontinence, the saying should probably say, “You’ve got food in your underwear!” Why? Because certain food and beverages can be bladder irritants, worsening symptoms like urinary leakage, frequency, and urge. One of the simplest lifestyle changes that women with urinary incontinence can make is to modify their diets to avoid bladder irritants.

What Are Bladder Irritants?
Bladder irritants are any foods or beverages that tend to make the urine more acidic, irritating areas of the bladder and urethra that are already inflamed. Mostly, bladder irritants include foods and beverages that:

  • are acidic
  • contain caffeine
  • have alcohol
  • contain tyrosine, tyramine, tryptophan, aspirate, and phenylalanine
  • you are allergic to

Avoiding these types of food and beverages can improve symptoms of urinary incontinence, especially with urinary urgency and frequency.

What To Do If You Cannot Avoid Bladder Irritants
While you can make every effort to avoid bladder irritants in your diet, there will be certain times when you simply cannot avoid these foods or beverages. For instance, suppose you find yourself at a dinner party where almost every item served is a bladder irritant. What’s a woman with urinary incontinence to do? Luckily, there are several strategies that can help you in these situations.

1. Use Prelief
Prelief is an over-the-counter medication that removes acid from the foods and beverages. Simply supplement meals that are acidic in nature with Prelief to avoid irritating your bladder.

2. Use a Coffee Substitute
If you absolutely must have your morning cup of joe to start your day, try a coffee substitute like Kava. Another option Postum, which is a low-acid instant drink similar to coffee. Caffeine-free herbal teas are another great way to start your morning.

3. Drink Plenty of Water
If you happen to eat or drink something that suddenly increases your urinary urges or frequency, drink plenty of water. The water will dilute the effect of the bladder irritants and reduce urine acidity.

Experimenting with Diet Modification
Once you remove all the offending foods and beverages from your diet, you will probably find that your symptoms of urinary urgency and frequency improve. This usually occurs within a few weeks of changing your diet. Once your symptoms improve, you can experiment by adding single foods or beverages back into your diet, noting which ones irritate your bladder and which do not.

Some people find immediate relief from this kind of diet modification, while others find this type of program too difficult to follow over a long period of time. Regardless, diet modification is a proven conservative therapy for women’s urinary incontinence, especially those with urge or mixed incontinence.
If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Embarrassed by Urine Leakage? How Quitting Smoking Can Reduce Bladder Spasms

This blog is part 4 of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

Did you know that smoking is one of the worst culprits when it comes to women’s urinary incontinence, especially those uncontrollable bladder spasms that cause embarrassing urine leakage!

If you smoke, you probably already know that it is one of the least-healthy activities you can do. For instance, women who smoke have four times the risk of developing bladder cancer. Not good. If you are a woman who smokes and suffers from bladder spasms and/or urine leakage, then you are definitely doing yourself a disservice.

The Link Between Smoking and Urine Leakage
Smoking is a risk factor for all three types of women’s urinary incontinence:

  • stress
  • urge (or overactive bladder)
  • mixed

With stress urinary incontinence, the pelvic floor muscles are too weak to hold urine in the bladder when abdominal pressure increases, such as when you cough or sneeze. If you smoke for a long period of time, chances are high that you will develop a chronic smoker’s cough. Each time you cough, you put immense downward pressure on your pelvic floor muscles. As time passes, this constant downward pressure will result in weakened pelvic floor muscles, and eventually urine leakage. Studies show that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop symptoms of stress urinary incontinence.

If you have urge urinary incontinence (also called overactive bladder), you experience frequent and sudden urges to urinate, whether or not you leak urine. These sudden urges are caused by bladder spasms which force urine out of your body when you least expect it. Smoking only worsens these bladder spasms since nicotine is a bladder irritant. More bladder spasms equal a greater frequency and urge to urinate.

With mixed urinary incontinence, you experience the symptoms of both stress and urge urinary incontinence. That means if you smoke, your symptoms will be doubly difficult to handle. In addition to bladder spasms from the nicotine, you can experience leakage every time you cough, sneeze, or exercise. More importantly, women who smoke are 28 percent more likely to develop some form of urinary incontinence!

The moral of this story should be crystal clear: if you want to avoid urine leakage, bladder spasms, and all other symptoms of urinary incontinence, stop smoking! If you feel you cannot stop smoking on your own, ask your doctor for help. Many smoking cessation methods are now available, and can provide the support you need to stop smoking today, and relieve your symptoms of urinary incontinence.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Tired of Being Publicly Humiliated by Women’s Urinary Incontinence? Bladder Retraining Can Help

This blog is part 3 of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

Browse any online forum about women’s health, and you will likely come across the subject of women’s urinary incontinence. While other women’s health issues certainly have their own aspects of pain, the women posting in the urinary incontinence forum use some very strong phrases that definitely describe their pain and suffering. See if any of these adjectives resonate with you, especially when you suffer from a urinary leakage accident in public:

  • soooo embarrassed
  • terribly confused
  • hate that ‘wet pants’ look
  • humiliated in public … can never return to that store
  • everyone was staring … wished I could just disappear
  • detest owning 30 pairs of panties and carrying a good supply in public
  • feel so alone and isolated

If any of the above phrases ring a bell with you, especially the last one about ‘being alone,’ we know exactly how you feel. We also know, as a urologist and physical therapist specializing in women’s pelvic health, that you are most definitely not alone! We have helped many women with the exact same problem–and same kind of suffering–and helped them get past that humiliating public urine leakage accident.

That’s why we are writing this 11-part series on lifestyle changes that may significantly improve your urinary leakage issues. The key is to be persistent in your approach to relieving your symptoms. You can and should try some or all of the approaches discussed in this series. Some women respond well to one type of lifestyle change, while other women need a combination of multiple approaches before they see results. Finally, seek out a compassionate medical professional for a diagnosis and assistance.

In this article we talk about how to use a bladder diary so you can truly track your symptoms, since you can’t cure your urinary incontinence until you know specifics of your condition, down to the last detail. We then discuss how you can use bladder retraining, based on the information you learned from your bladder diary, as a conservative technique to relieve women’s urinary incontinence symptoms.

Keeping a Bladder Diary
The bladder diary (or voiding diary) is exactly what it sounds like: it is a record of your bladder habits. You may think you know absolutely everything about your condition, but when you start keeping a bladder diary, you may be surprised. Many women fail to notice crucial details of their urinary habits, and are surprised at how often they need to urinate, how many times a day they have strong urges, or the amount of water they drink. Most of these details fall by the wayside when there is a humiliating public leakage accident, or are simply filed under the category of “that happens a lot.” With a bladder diary, you will discover just how much is “a lot.” You will need these details so you can design a bladder retraining program that is customized to your unique condition.

To keep a bladder diary, simply track the following for a minimum of a week:

  • when, how much, and what kinds of fluids you drink (all fluids, especially caffeinated fluids)
  • when and how many times you urinate during the day
  • when and how many times a day you experience strong urges to urinate, whether you urinate or leak urine
  • how many times a day you experience leakage and how much you leak
  • the triggers that cause you to leak urine or experience strong urges (such as coughing or sneezing, hearing the sound of running water, or lying in bed)

Also record any other health issues you experience, even if you think they are not related to your urinary incontinence. Your doctor will want to know about these, as some may be caused by medications you take for other health conditions, or other lifestyle issues. Once you have at least a week’s worth of data, proceed to the next step: designing your customized bladder retraining program.

Designing Your Custom Bladder Retraining Program
Just as not all women start doing Kegels with the same level of intensity, your bladder retraining program should also be customized to your specific needs. A custom Kegel program is based on a woman’s current level of pelvic floor muscle fitness, including how long she can hold a correct contraction plus how many repetitions she can do. Your custom bladder retraining program will be based on how long your bladder can hold urine before you must urinate or have a leakage accident.

Bladder retraining is most effective if you have urge urinary incontinence (also called overactive bladder or OAB) or mixed urinary incontinence. The goal of this conservative therapy is to learn to delay your urination after you get the urge to urinate. Bladder retraining does work. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, women who practice this method notice the following improvements:

  • increased amount of urine the bladder can hold
  • better control over the urge to urinate
  • more time (or delay) between bathroom visits

These improvements can definitely help prevent those embarrassing public leakage accidents. What’s even better is that bladder retraining is not a difficult technique to learn or use. Simply use the following steps to start retraining your bladder today.

1. Determine Your Urination Interval
The goal of bladder retraining is to delay your trips to the bathroom to urinate so that you urinate once every two to three hours during the day (this is considered a “normal” voiding interval). If possible, bladder retraining should also help you avoid trips to the bathroom at night so you can experience uninterrupted sleep until morning. In short, bladder retraining gives you control of your bladder by having you urinate on a schedule.

Before you can set a schedule, you need to first determine the current interval between trips to the bathroom to urinate. For most women we recommend setting the interval at one-and-a-half hours. However some women cannot hold their urine for this long in the beginning. To determine your customized interval, look through your bladder diary and calculate the average amount of time between trips to the bathroom. You will use this average interval in the next step.

2. Increase Your Urination Interval with Timed Voiding
Once you have this average, add 5 to 10 minutes to this interval to arrive at your starting interval. For instance, if your bladder diary tells you that your average interval is normally 45 minutes, set your starting interval at 50 or 55 minutes. That means you will attempt to hold your urine and avoid trips to the bathroom for 50 to 55 minutes. Once the interval has ended, go to the bathroom and urinate, whether you need to or not. This process is called timed voiding, and is the basic technique behind bladder retraining. This process trains your bladder to release urine only when you choose, according to your own schedule.

Most women need to set a timer, especially at the beginning, to remind them when the interval has ended. If you feel the urge to urinate before the interval is complete, try one or more of these techniques to delay urination:

  • relax and breathe in a deliberate manner
  • sit quietly, avoid moving or fidgeting
  • visualize a tranquil scene (without water)
  • think about another topic to distract your attention
  • do a series of Kegels if you know you can do a correct contraction

If you still cannot hold your urine until the interval is over, don’t worry. Run for the bathroom. When you return, reset your timer and start again. Bladder retraining, like any learned technique, takes practice so don’t worry if you can’t make it to the end of the interval the first few times. Once you are able to consistently hold your urine during your chosen interval, stretch the interval by 5 to 10 minutes at a time until you reach the goal of two to three hours.

3. Once in the Bathroom Empty Your Bladder Completely
One of the keys to successful bladder retraining is to empty your bladder completely when you do finally urinate. Some women do not fully empty their bladders when they urinate, and this can interfere with the success of bladder retraining. To ensure that your bladder is completely empty, urinate until you feel your bladder is empty. Wait 10 seconds, and then lean forward. Try to urinate again. You may be surprised by the amount of urine that was still in your bladder. By leaning forward, you change the angle of your pelvic organs, especially the bladder neck, which allows any remaining urine to be released.

Coping with Women’s Urinary Incontinence Requires Patience and Persistence
Patience and persistence are the two “P’s” of success when coping with this humiliating, embarrassing, and downright inconvenient condition. As you commence your bladder retraining program, practice both patience and persistence. Be patient with yourself when you don’t make the interval or continue to suffer from leakage accidents. Retraining takes practice. Be persistent, as well. Stick to your voiding schedule like clockwork. We suggest you stick with your bladder retraining program for at least 40 days.

Continue logging your results in your bladder diary. Your bladder diary will help you notice even minor improvements in bladder control, and these changes should be celebrated! Any increase in bladder control is worth the effort that goes into a bladder retraining program. Also remember that bladder retraining is only one of many conservative therapies for women’s urinary incontinence. If bladder retraining doesn’t relieve your symptoms to your satisfaction, consider trying a combination of therapies (read all about them in this complete guide).

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Mixed Women’s Urinary Incontinence: The Best and Worst of Both Worlds

If you have women’s urinary incontinence, specifically mixed urinary incontinence, then you probably know exactly what the phrase “The Best and Worst of Both Worlds” means. Women with mixed urinary incontinence suffer from symptoms of both stress and urge incontinence. Women with stress urinary incontinence leak urine every time they put stress on the bladder or abdominal cavity, such as when sneezing, laughing, coughing, or exercising. With urge urinary incontinence (or the milder form, overactive bladder), women experience strong and sudden urges to urinate, often resulting in a urinary accident with copious amounts of leakage. Women with urge incontinence or overactive bladder also have to urinate frequently, and often at night.

The Worst of Both Worlds
Women with mixed urinary incontinence suffer the symptoms of both stress and urge incontinence–at the same time! When it comes to women’s urinary incontinence, having the symptoms of mixed incontinence is like living in the “worst of both worlds.” These women feel like they have to be prepared for urinary leakage at ANY time! Women with mixed incontinence have symptoms that are both more severe AND more frequent than women who have only stress or urge incontinence. In fact, studies show that women with mixed incontinence rate their quality of life as being more strongly affected than women with the other types of urinary incontinence. Unfortunately, about one-third of women with urinary incontinence suffer from this form. That’s the bad news. That truly is the worst of both worlds!

The Best of Both Worlds
Now here’s the good news: women with mixed urinary incontinence are more likely to seek medical help for their condition sooner than their counterparts with only stress or urge incontinence. Studies demonstrate that the severity of a woman’s urinary incontinence symptoms is a good predictor of her likelihood for seeking help. Another bit of good news is this: because women with mixed incontinence are more likely to seek medical help, physicians have more experience helping women with this condition. What this means for you is that, should you seek medical help for your mixed incontinence, your doctor is likely have plenty of experience with your condition and know the available treatments.

How Your Doctor Will Treat Your Mixed Urinary Incontinence
With mixed urinary incontinence, your physicians first task to is determine which form of incontinence (stress or urge) is dominant in your case. Your doctor will then recommend options to treat the more dominant condition first. Once that condition has been addressed, your doctor will then suggest therapies for the secondary condition. For instance, suppose your form of mixed urinary incontinence is dominated by stress incontinence. This means you are more likely to leak urine when you put stress on your bladder and abdomen, such as when you cough, sneeze, laugh, exercise, or step off a curb. You also have urge incontinence, but you leak urine less often due to this condition. In your case, your doctor will recommend treatment options for stress incontinence first, which might include pelvic floor retraining, lifestyle and behavior modification, or even surgery. Once you find a combination of treatments that alleviate your stress urinary incontinence symptoms to your satisfaction, your physician will then address your urge incontinence symptoms. For instance, she may recommend that you take medication to relieve your urge incontinence symptoms.

Make sense? Good. So … if you are suffering from mixed urinary incontinence, now is the time to pick up the phone and call your doctor. Your quality of life is most probably being severely impacted by this condition, and there is no need to suffer any longer. We strongly encourage you to seek medical guidance now so that you can look forward to a time in your near future when you will be high and dry!

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself

If you leak urine, whether a little or a lot, chances are that you have asked yourself whether you are “normal” or not. Many women mistakenly assume that urinary incontinence is a “normal” part of aging.Guess what? Women’s urinary incontinence is NOT normal at any age. A healthy bladder does not leak urine. So if you are wondering whether you are “normal,” here are 5 questions to ask yourself:#1: Does your bladder function normally?
A healthy bladder can hold about 2 cups of fluid comfortably for 2 to 5 hours. Can your bladder do that?

#2: Did your women’s urinary incontinence start with menopause?
While urine leakage often accompanies menopause, it is not normal. Luckily, there are many medications and conservative options to help with urinary incontinence that occurs with menopause.

#3: Do you urinate more than 6 to 8 times daily?
If you have a healthy urinary system, you should urinate no more than 6 to 8 times per day. If you have to urinate more frequently, then you may be suffering from overactive bladder (OAB), also called urge urinary incontinence. You may wish to keep a voiding diary to track how many times a day you have to urinate. The results may surprise you.

#4: Are you “coping” well with your slight urine leakage?
Many women assume that if their urine leakage is slight and that they can cope with it using absorbent pads, they don’t have a problem. Unfortunately, any amount of urine leakage isn’t normal. Of course, all of us have experienced “wet panties” once in a while when we laugh way too hard. But if you leak urine regularly, then it’s time to call your doctor for help.

#5: Do you urinate “just in case”?
If you visit the bathroom before every movie or before sitting down to most meals “just in case” you might have to go later, you are practicing what is called “defensive voiding.” Defensive voiding is a sign of women’s urinary incontinence, and can be a sign of overactive bladder (OAB) or urge urinary incontinence. If so, talk to your doctor about conservative measures you can take so you don’t have to practice defensive voiding. You’ll find it quite a relief …plus you’ll enjoy movies and meals much more!

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Do Herbal Remedies Work for Urinary Incontinence?

With the array of herbal and botanical formulas on the market today for women’s urinary incontinence, there is a strong temptation to “go natural.”After all, what could be better than using products from nature to deal with women’s urinary incontinence?

There is certainly nothing wrong with using herbs and other natural products. The question is whether these products actually help with urine leakage symptoms, or simply are a waste of time and money.

The best way to discover the effectiveness of herbal products for improving urinary leakage issues to read scientific peer-reviewed studies of the products. Here are just a few products that have been reviewed by the scientific community, as opposed to simply tested by “in-house” teams employed by the companies that make the products.

A Review of 5 Natural Products for Women’s Urinary Incontinence
Some of the more common natural products that have been touted for improving urinary incontinence symptoms include pumpkin seeds, cornsilk, buchu, bromelain, and magnesium. Let’s see how these products act to improve women’s urinary incontinence.

#1: Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin seeds have actually been under significant clinical investigation for treating urinary incontinence. Studies have shown that certain ingredients in pumpkin seeds, including essential fatty acids and compounds like “phytoesterol,” do support a woman’s bladder, especially after menopause. In fact, in one study 75% of postmenopausal women taking pumpkin seeds achieved better bladder control after six weeks.

#2: Cornsilk
Corksilks are the long silky fibers found at the top of an ear of corn. High in flavonoids and polyphenols, both of which have anti-inflammatory properties, cornsilk is believed to reduce inflammation in the bladder. As a result, some women experience a reduced urge to urinate, especially if their urine leakage is related to inflammation.

#3: Buchu
Many herbalists currently prescribe this South American herb for recurring urinary tract infections and overall bladder health. Many doctors point out that urine leakage issues are often related to bladder inflammation, or even mild infections. Even mild inflammation of the bladder can cause a continuous urge to urinate and prevent you from completely emptying your bladder. Since buchu has mild antiseptic properties, it is believed that this herb prevents inflammation.

#4: Bromelain
Bromelain comes from the pineapple plant, and is commonly known to be an anti-inflammatory. As with some of the other herbs mentioned in this article, bromelain is believed to have a healing effect on bladder inflammation.

#5: Magnesium
Athletes know that magnesium is essential to muscle health, and studies indicate that people with Parkinson’s disease find relief from urine leakage symptoms when taking this supplement. Doctors also recognize that magnesium may be useful in controlling bladder spasms, which can cause incomplete emptying of the bladder. In addition, some women find that taking magnesium before bedtime can relieve nighttime wetting issues.

If you suffer from women’s urine incontinence, exploring all your options are key to finding relief. This can include the natural remedies mentioned in this article, medication, physical therapy, acupuncture, and even surgery. The point is that not all solutions work for all women, but there is a solution out there for your urinary incontinence issues. Keep looking until you find a solution that works for you!

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Putting Your Women’s Urinary Incontinence to Bed

Do you ever curl up in bed after a long day’s work, ready for a restful night’s sleep, only to find that you have to leap out of bed again to pee? Then two hours later, you have to pee again. Two hours later? Ditto …so much for beauty rest!But rest easy. Your problem isn’t insolvable. By making a few conservative lifestyle changes you can sleep solidly for six to eight hours at a time-with no interruptions!

Getting Beauty Rest with Urinary Incontinence
If you are up and down all night, running to the bathroom, then you are not alone! Sixteen percent of people over the age of 18 have the same trouble getting a good night’s sleep. What’s even worse is dealing with the wet sheets when you don’t make it to the bathroom on time.

To avoid all of this hassle, here are some steps you can take to guarantee future nights of beauty rest:

1. Limit Fluid Intake
Stop drinking fluids after 6 pm, or at least 3 hours before bed. To stay hydrated, you need to drink at least four to nine cups of water daily. Just be sure to drink those fluids during the morning and afternoon. Limiting fluid intake in the evening will decrease your need to urinate at night.

2. Double-Void Before Bed
Double-voiding is the practice of urinating twice before you go to bed. First, urinate until you feel that your bladder is empty. Then, go through the rest of your evening routine, such as washing your face or brushing your teeth. Afterwards, urinate again. This ensures that your bladder is truly empty before you go to bed. Alternately, you can double-void by urinating, relaxing on the toilet for 10-20 seconds, and then urinating again.

3. Avoid Bladder-Irritating Food and Drink
If you suffer from urinary incontinence, preventing nighttime wetting accidents means avoiding certain foods and drinks. Caffeinated drinks, alcoholic beverages, acidic foods and juices, spicy dishes, and artificial sweeteners can all worsen urinary incontinence symptoms. Stay away from these items and you should experience better sleep at night.

These three simple lifestyle-changing steps can go a long way toward transforming you from a sleep-deprived grump to Sleeping Beauty!

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Dealing with Women’s Urinary Incontinence While Exercising

If you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence, you are probably wary about exercising in public. The embarrassment of a urine leakage accident occurring while you jog on a crowded public trail or ride an exercise bike at the gym can be enough to keep you at home!Unfortunately, avoiding workouts won’t really help your urine leakage problem. In fact, lack of exercise–and the resulting weight gain–can actually worsen your urinary leakage problems. That’s why it is important to deal with your urinary incontinence so that you can work out in a way that is comfortable for you. We have some tips that can empower you to return to the gym without fear of urinary leakage.

Five Ways to Cope with Urinary Incontinence While Exercising
There are many conservative measures you can take to prevent or minimize urinary leakage when you exercise. Here are five ways you can help yourself stay dry while you exercise.

Tip #1: Limit Fluid Intake
While it is important to stay hydrated when you exercise, limiting your fluid intake just before your exercise session can help prevent urine leakage. You are the best judge of how much fluid you need to drink before and during your workout to stay hydrated while preventing leakage accidents. Experiment with different levels of fluid intake until you see some level of improvement in your urinary incontinence symptoms. Normally, women need to drink between four and nine cups of water per day to stay hydrated.

Tip #2: Urinate Just Before Working Out
Emptying your bladder before your workout can go a long way toward preventing leakage accidents. You can go a step further by practicing double voiding. Double voiding means urinating until you feel that your bladder is empty. Then, wait a few seconds, and urinate again. This allows your bladder to empty completely, which can help prevent symptoms of urge urinary incontinence, which is also called overactive bladder.

Tip #3: Use a Tampon or Urethral Insert
Both tampons and urethral inserts increase pressure on the urethra and support the bladder. Both of these actions can help prevent urine leakage during while you exercise, especially if you suffer from stress urinary incontinence.

Tip #4: Use Absorbent Pads or Diapers
While this option seems unattractive for many women, since pads and diapers can be bulky and uncomfortable, you might be surprised at the advances in these products. Trying different absorbent products until you find the one that works for you may allow you to return to an active lifestyle without worrying about that embarrassing “wet panty” look. Check out the different kinds of absorbent products on the market today, and see which ones fit your needs.

Tip #5: Exercise Your Body Inside and Out
Being able to work out at the gym without urine leakage may depend on how regularly you exercise your inner muscles “down there.” Regularly exercising your pelvic floor muscles can keep you toned and fit internally, which prevents urine leakage. For the scoop on pelvic floor muscle contractions (also called Kegels) check out our free informational ebook.

Download the “What’s Up Down There” ebook here.

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Capsaicin: Can Chili Peppers Help with Women’s Urinary Incontinence?

As odd as it may seem, capsaicin, the active component of chili peppers, may actually help some women with their urinary incontinence symptoms. This is odd because women suffering from urinary leakage are told to stay away from spicy foods … and that is good advice.However, recent studies show that capsaicin can actually help urinary leakage symptoms by desensitizing certain bladder nerves. This in turn reduces involuntary bladder leakage and, in some women, has been shown to increase bladder capacity.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that capsaicin, which is administered directly into the bladder, can actually worsen bladder and urine leakage symptoms temporarily. Luckily, there is a capsaicin analog called resiniferatoxin, which does not cause the same irritating response while still producing the same positive effects.

The use of capsaicin and its analog are still in the experimental phases of study, but you never know if and when it could become yet another conservative therapy that may help you deal with your women’s urinary incontinence symptoms.

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Keeping Young Women Out of Sports?

While women’s urinary incontinence is popularly believed to affect mostly mature women, a recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine demonstrates that urine leakage can affect much younger women, as well.In fact, this new study shows that younger women affected by urinary incontinence are being forced to change the sports in which they participate, or give up sports altogether. The study focused on 679 Italian women, all of whom participated in non-competitive sports and were still having regular periods.

One in seven of the women surveyed (15%) indicated they suffered from urinary incontinence, and on average these women had been dealing with the symptoms for about 6 years. Of those affected:

– about half experienced symptoms during routine activities
– one-third had symptoms occur solely during sporting activities
– one-fifth claimed symptoms during both regular and sporting activities

Based on the study results, the riskiest sports for women, when it comes to urinary incontinence, are (in descending order): basketball, athletics, and tennis or squash. What’s more:

– 10% of the women surveyed gave up their favorite sport because of their urinary incontinence
– 20% of women surveyed changed or limited their sporting activity to prevent further urine leakage issues

Wow! Those statistics include a large number of young women who can longer be as active as they once were because of urine leakage problems.

What’s a Young Woman with Urinary Incontinence to Do?
Luckily, young women with urine leakage problems do have options and solutions. In younger women, urinary incontinence is most often the result of pelvic floor weakness. Strengthening these muscles by doing regular Kegels can make a big difference.

If you have been unable to participate in your favorite sporting event because of urine leakage accidents, consider doing Kegels as part of your rehabilitation program. Kegels tone and strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which are the muscles that hold urine in the bladder until you are ready to urinate.

If you have never done Kegels, or you have done Kegels but feel they are not effective for you, you may want to download our ebook “What’s Up Down There?” This ebook not only helps you determine the strength of your pelvic floor muscles, but also walks you through how to do a correct pelvic floor contraction (Kegel). Many women do Kegels, but incorrectly. This ebook helps you troubleshoot your Kegel contraction, and helps you do those contractions correctly. Kegels are both simple and effective once you learn to do them correctly.

Download the “What’s Up Down There?” ebook here

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Medications for Overactive Bladder or Urge Urinary Incontinence

If you are a woman and you leak urine then you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence. The question is, do you know which kind you have? There are actually three kinds of women’s urinary incontinence:
If you leak urine when you sneeze, step off a curb, or pick up a heavy object, then you most likely have SUI. If the sound of running water causes you to leak urine, or you simply leak involuntarily at odd moments, then you probably have UUI. If you have both kinds of symptoms, then you probably suffer from MUI.The good news for women who leak urine is that there are many treatment options. In this article, we cover the different kinds of medications used to treat overactive bladder, also known as UUI.

Which Type of Medication Should You Take?
Choosing the right medication for your overactive bladder or urge urinary incontinence should be a joint effort between you and your doctor. Not all medications work for all women with UUI, so it may take a little trial and error before you find the right medication for your symptoms.

There are two types of medications that treat OAB or UUI: short-acting and long-acting. If you simply need a little help to get through the Sunday church service without leaking urine, then you may want to take medication that acts in the short term-for 3 to 4 hours. This kind of medicine will work for you if you can manage your urine leakage most of the time, but want to prevent urine leakage during a special event.

On the other hand, if urine leakage is a more chronic problem and you need help all the time, then you need a more long-acting form of medication. You take this type of medicine once or twice a day, and the effect lasts 12 to 24 hours.

Long and Short-Acting Medications for OAB or UUI
Many medications come in both short-acting and long-acting forms. For example, tolterodine, commercially known as Detrol or Detrol LA, comes in both short and long acting forms. The same goes for oxybitynin, which comes in tablet, patch, and gel form.

As you can see, there are many choices of medicine for OAB or UUI. Whether you choose a medicine that has short-acting or long-acting effects is a decision that you should make with your doctor. Other factors to consider include the side effects of each kind of medication. For instance, the class of medication called anticholinergics can cause dry mouth, constipation, drowsiness, or confusion. This type of medication is also contraindicated for people who have glaucoma.

Along with possible side effects, other factors to consider when choosing your medication include price, effectiveness, and length of time before the benefits are realized. Many short-acting medications produce results right away, while long-acting medications can take between five and ten days to show benefit.

The point is that there are many medications available on the market approved by the FDA to treat overactive bladder or urge urinary incontinence. Medication can be a very effective conservative therapy for women’s urinary incontinence, and you shouldn’t give up hope if the first medication you try does not work for you. Keep consulting with your healthcare provider until you find a treatment that works for your UUI or OAB. Sometimes medication works best when combined with pelvic floor rehabilitation and other conservative therapies.

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: More Than One Cause

“Why am I leaking urine?” This is one of the most common questions asked by women who experience urinary leakage. The answer to this question is not as simple or straightforward as it might seem, since there can be multiple causes for this condition. If you are leaking urine, then you may be looking for more than one culprit.

Risk Factors for Women’s Urinary Incontinence
Unfortunately, women are twice as likely as men to suffer from urine leakage. Part of the reason for this statistic is that pregnancy and childbirth are major contributors to urinary incontinence. Childbirth, especially vaginal deliveries, can stretch and tear the muscles and ligaments in the pelvic region, weakening the pelvic floor muscles and causing urine leakage.

Other risk factors that can contribute to urinary incontinence include:

Weight Gain and Obesity:Every pound puts downward pressure on the bladder and pelvic floor muscles

Aging:Muscles in the pelvic floor tend to sag, just like muscles everywhere else in the body

Smoking and Chronic Cough:Nicotine can irritate the bladder in some women while chronic coughing puts stress on the bladder, causing involuntary leakage

Menopause:Decreased levels of estrogen linked to menopause can lead to thinning of the urethral and vaginal walls, which in turn offer less support for the bladder

Medication:Certain classes of medicine, such as broncho-dilators and diuretics, can cause urine leakage

Urinary Tract Infections:Chronic infections in the bladder or urinary tract can eventually lead to urinary incontinence

Other causes include pelvic organ prolapse, dietary issues, and bladder stones. The key is to realize that more than one factor may be contributing to your urine leakage issues.

That’s why it is important to check with your healthcare provider as soon as you experience any symptoms of urinary incontinence. The earlier your doctor can diagnose your condition, the more easily your symptoms can be treated and cured. In addition, early detection means that conservative measures, such as physical therapy and lifestyle changes, are more effective.

Diseases That Contribute to Urinary Incontinence
In addition to the factors listed above, certain diseases can cause urinary incontinence. While this is more prevalent in the elderly or the ill, you are more likely to suffer urine leakage if you have or have had:

– Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease
– diabetes
– multiple sclerosis
– stroke
– pelvic floor or spinal cord injuries
– bladder cancer

As always, knowledge is power and the more knowledge you have about your condition the more you can contribute to your own health and well-being. To be your own best health advocate, especially when it comes to matters “down there,” take two important steps:

1. Contact your healthcare provider to get an accurate diagnosis and explore your treatment options.

2. Learn are much as you can about your condition. You may wish to learn more about the different types of urinary incontinence or read our no-cost ebook.

Good luck and remember that urinary incontinence is neither inevitable nor untreatable!

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Pack a Small Bag When Out and About

An evening at the theater, an educational lecture, a “girls night out” … all of these activities should be fun and pleasurable, unless you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence. If you have a problem with urine leakage, then these social events can end up being torturous rather than fun.Pack a Bag for Social Events
Social events can become fun again with a little strategic planning. One way to deal with women’s urinary incontinence is to pack a small bag when you have to be out and about. And don’t worry, when we say “small bag” we mean small.

In fact, you can fit most of these items in your purse. To be prepared to deal with potential urine leakage accidents, carry these items around with you:

– an extra incontinence pad
– a tampon (wearing a tampon can support your urethra and prevent leakage)
– odor-neutralizing spray
– small fragrance spray

No big deal, right? The extra pad will keep you dry if you do have a urine leakage accident. The tampon will prevent further leakage, and the sprays will keep you smelling fresh and clean.

Some Additional Tips for Social Events
In addition to packing some extra supplies, you can also minimize embarrassment if you do have an accident by doing the following:

– watch what you eat and drink
– practice bladder retraining or timed voiding
– wearing dark clothing

Sounds simple, right? It can be. A little effort goes a long way when you deal with women’s urinary incontinence.

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence Linked to Depression

When it comes to urinary incontinence, what goes on in your head could be related to what goes on “down there”! According to a study published by obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Melville of the University of Washington:Depressed women are 148% more likely to be affected by women’s urinary incontinence than women who were not depressed.

So what’s going on here … or down there?

Which Comes First: Urinary Incontinence or Depression?
When it comes to women’s urinary incontinence and depression, the question of which condition shows up first may be akin to the question about chickens and eggs. Either condition could trigger the other.

Dr. Melville points out that neurotransmitters like serotonin, which are affected by depression, may also affect the brain chemicals that control the bladder. This means that chemical changes in the brain brought on by depression may also contribute to the onset of women’s urinary incontinence.

For instance, in one study, conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia and University of Michigan, it was reported that women who were depressed after giving birth had a higher incidence of urge urinary incontinence than new mothers who were not depressed. This study, presented at the 2005 meeting of the American Urogynecologic Society in Atlanta, clearly links post-partum depression with women’s urinary incontinence.

On the other hand, as Dr. Melville states, women’s urinary incontinence is a difficult chronic condition to deal with, and can lead to depression. Specifically, she says, “Incontinence so severely affects some women’s quality of life that they may become socially isolated and embarrassed. And, over time, that could lead to depression.”

So what comes first: women’s urinary incontinence or depression? Researchers are not clear yet, but there is a definite condition between the two conditions. Luckily, both conditions are treatable.

For resources on women’s urinary incontinence, we suggest you start with our no-frills free ebook on women’s pelvic floor health:

Download the “What’s Up Down There?” Ebook

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: When You Gotta Go at Night

Women with urinary incontinence have enough difficult staying dry during the day, when they are awake and conscious, but what do you do if you leak urine at night when you are sleeping?This is a symptom of urge urinary incontinence (UUI) or mixed urinary incontinence (MUI). It is also, according to the women who suffer from this problem, downright frustrating!

What Can You Do About Urinary Incontinence at Night?
Luckily, depending on the severity of symptoms, you can take steps to decrease urine leakage at night, or limit the amount of cleanup necessary. Here are three do-it-yourself steps you might want to try.

1. Bladder Retraining
Bladder retraining involves urinating at regular intervals during the day, whether you feel like you need to go or not. The goal is the increase the interval of time so that you urinate less and less frequently during the day. This will often relieve symptoms of nighttime urine leakage.

To assist you with bladder retraining, you may need to program your cell phone or a small timer to “beep” at certain intervals, reminding you to go to the bathroom. For instance, during the first week you may want to set the timer for an hour or 90 minutes. If you feel the urge to urinate before your timer has beeped, breathe deeply and relax. Do a Kegel or pelvic floor contraction or two or suppress the urge. Then urinate at the appointed time.

Each week gradually increase the interval between bathroom visits until you have reached a 3 hour interval. At this point you should definitely see improvement in your nighttime urine leakage symptoms.

2. Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor Muscles
When you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles with Kegels, they will help hold everything in place “down there” both during the day and at night. The key is to do “correct” Kegels. Many women think they are tightening the correct pelvic floor muscles during a Kegel, but in fact are squeezing their thighs or buttocks instead.

To learn how to do a correct Kegel, download our ebook, which has step-by-step instructions on how to perform a correct Kegel. The ebook also gives offers two great tests to help you measure the strength of your pelvic floor muscles.

3. Stop Fluid Intake before Bed
While you definitely need to stay hydrated during the day, since not drinking enough water can worsen symptoms of urinary incontinence, you can decrease night time leakage by stopping your fluid intake 3 hours before bed. Most women report that this 3-hour interval works well to decrease urine leakage at night.

Finally, to prevent messy cleanups or having the change your linens, consider sleeping on a waterproof pad or wearing an adult brief to bed. It can save a lot of hassle during the night so you can rest easy and have sweet dreams!

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Women’s Urinary Incontinence: Peeing by the Clock Can Help

If you are a woman with urinary incontinence, you can actually take steps to prevent or decrease urine leakage accidents. One of these steps is called “timed voiding.” As the name suggests, it means you urinate according to a schedule … or pee by the clock.Timed Voiding Alleviates Urinary Incontinence Symptoms
Timed voiding is one of the conservative therapies that doctors often recommend for women suffering from urge and mixed urinary incontinence. Timed voiding is part of the therapy called bladder retraining. There are two ways to practice timed voiding, or peeing by the clock.

Timed Voiding Method #1 for Women’s Urinary Incontinence
The whole point of timed voiding is to retrain your bladder so that you urinate when you choose to, not when your bladder decides to “let go.” The first way to practice timed voiding is by delaying urination by 10 minutes when you feel the need to “go.”

Although this may be difficult at first, there are two ways to help you create this delay. One way is to focus your attention elsewhere for 10 minutes. Read a book, watch television, or otherwise distract yourself.

The other way is to do some Kegels, if possible, to buy yourself some time. This also strengthens your pelvic floor muscles.

Once you have been able to delay urination for 10 minutes, work on extending the delay to 20 minutes. This may take a while, but keep working at it. This “retrains” your bladder in a mind over matter kind of way.

Timed Voiding Method #2 for Women’s Urinary Incontinence
The second method to “pee by the clock” is to actually set a schedule for your urination. This usually means scheduling bathroom breaks every 2-3 hours. By setting and following this kind of schedule, you are retraining your bladder. Now you are in control of your bladder rather than the other way around.

As with the first method, this will take a little bit of practice. You may have to adjust your fluid intake as well to accommodate your schedule. However, this method does work for many women with urinary incontinence, especially if you are strict about following your set schedule. This method also means that your voiding more closely mimics that of a healthy bladder. Women with healthy bladders urinate six to eight times per day, rather than 10 or more times.

Timed Voiding Takes Practice
As with all conservative approaches to managing women’s urinary incontinence, consistency is the key. Practicing one or both timed voiding approaches above will, over time, change the way your bladder works. When added to other conservative therapies, including medications and pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation, timed voiding can be especially effective.

Give it a try. This method is discreet and can be practiced in the privacy of your home. What have you got to lose other than your wet panties?

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