Posts in category: Women’s Healthcare

“Don’t touch me with that knife!”

That is the instinctive response many women suffering from urinary incontinence have when they think about surgery to correct their symptoms. But for women with stress urinary incontinence, minimally-invasive surgery can be a real boon when conservative therapies are not enough to significantly relieve or cure their symptoms.

The Transobturator Tape and Urinary Incontinence
One of the most common surgeries to correct stress urinary incontinence is the transobturator tape. With this surgery a mesh tape is inserted around the urethra to support it like a hammock. This hammock helps the urethra close more tightly during times of stress, such as when you cough or sneeze. The tape is permanent, and the body’s natural healing process anchors it into place.

This surgery requires only three tiny incisions, and can be performed as a day surgery. Success rates are high with the transobturator tape. A recent study published in a urology journal reported that 90% of women who had this surgery to correct stress urinary incontinence were completely cured. A further 5% reported that their symptoms were improved.

One Woman’s Experience with the Transobturator Tape
If you’re not sure whether conservative surgery, such as the transobturator tape, is right for you, discuss your concerns in detail with your healthcare specialist. Also, consider the interview below with a patient who has recently undergone this procedure for her stress urinary incontinence. Her experience and excellent results may help you feel more comfortable about exploring this procedure for yourself.

Are you pleased with the results of your TOT?
Oh, yes, this has changed my life.

How so?
I can exercise again without fear of leakage, and I am losing some weight. I can sit through a movie and through church. Maybe best of all, I can have sex with my husband without fear of peeing on him.

Are you sorry you waited so long to have the surgery?
Absolutely. I tell all my friends to go see their doctors if they share this embarrassing problem. 

How was your recovery?
It was virtually painless. I think I took two pain pills the first night, and after that, only Tylenol.

What else would you like to tell the women out there who are still leaking urine? 
Get help! You don’t have to live this way. Do it now. Life’s too short to be running around with wet underwear.

Words of Wisdom and Resources for Urinary Incontinence
We hope the words of wisdom and experience above help you better consider your treatment options for urinary incontinence

The big day is just around the corner: your doctor’s appointment to evaluate and discuss treatment options for your urinary incontinence. Now that you have actually worked up the nerve to make the appointment, a little preparatory work will ensure that you walk away from your appointment with the solutions you seek.

Preparing for your appointment doesn’t have to be complicated, but you should take the time to do so. Good preparation leads to good communication during the appointment. Your doctor gets all the information he or she needs to accurately evaluate your condition. You get answers to your questions and can explore your treatment options. You can prepare for your appointment in three easy steps.

Step 1: Observe Your Symptoms
If you have been dealing with symptoms of urinary incontinence, this may seem odd, since no doubt you are quite familiar with your symptoms. However, your doctor will probably ask you some very specific questions, so you will need to observe your symptoms closely for a few days, and jot down some notes. In fact, some healthcare providers even ask their patients, when they schedule their appointment, to keep a voiding diary prior to the appointment.

Keeping a voiding diary is a good idea whether your doctor’s office requests it or not, and will help your doctor assess your situation more accurately. To keep a voiding diary, simply track of the following for a few days:

– when, how much, and what kinds of fluids you drink
–  when and how many times you urinate during the day
– how many times a day you experience leakage, how much you leak, and under what conditions (such as coughing or sneezing, or during the night)

Also jot down any other health issues you experience, even if you think they are not related to your urinary incontinence.

Step 2: Make Your List
In addition to keeping a voiding diary, jot down a list of supplements and medications you are taking, and write a list of questions you have for your doctor. The list will come in handy during your appointment and remind you to ask all of your questions. For urinary incontinence, you may wish to ask your doctor the following:

– what kind of urinary incontinence you have (stress, urge, mixed, or pelvic organ prolapse)
– whether your urinary incontinence symptoms can be improved or cured
– what kinds of tests you might need to assess your situation
– whether lifestyle changes or diet modification might help
– what kinds of conservative therapies might improve your symptoms
– whether your medications could be aggravating your condition
– whether there are medications that would help your condition
– whether surgery is necessary

Step 3: Gather Your Stuff and Prepare Yourself
On the day of your appointment, gather up all of your “stuff.” You’ll want to take your voiding diary, your list of questions, as well as a notepad and pen so you can write down important information during your appointment. If you were not able to list all of the medications and supplements you are taking in the step above, simply gather all the bottles and pills into a bag and bring them with you to your appointment. If you have difficulty seeing or hearing, be sure to bring your glasses or hearing aids.

You may also want to ask a close friend or family member come with you to your appointment. Your companion can help you remember to ask all of your questions, and remember important information. Finally, your doctor may want to do a pelvic exam, especially if you have scheduled an appointment with a urologist or urogynecologist, so you may want to take special care with your personal hygiene before your appointment.

Then, having thoroughly prepared yourself for your appointment, you are ready to fully explore the many available treatment options for solving your urinary incontinence issues.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We say the road to wet panties is paved with coping mechanisms. Women with urinary incontinence demonstrate extraordinary powers of coping—coping skills that start with baby steps. Unfortunately, while coping can help women deal with symptoms of urinary incontinence, it can also prevent these women from seeking real cure.

Does This Sound Like You?
You don’t have time to run to the bathroom at the grocery store so you try to “hold it” until you get home, only to discover that you don’t quite make it. Instead, you find yourself digging through your purse for your house keys while urine streams down your leg.

You decide you are never going to allow this situation to happen again, so you start scouting out and using bathrooms at various stores as you run errands. Maybe you carry an absorbent pad with you in your purse, or start wearing pants that are easy to pull down.

If your condition worsens, you might even start carrying a change of clothing with you or stop going to the gym for your morning workout to avoid the embarrassing “wet panty” look that sometimes happens. Before long, “girls night out” and dating fall by the wayside, not to mention sex.

Does this sound like you?

The Shrinking World of Urinary Incontinence
If you are coping with rather than curing your urinary incontinence, you are living in a shrinking world, whether you realize it or not. You live in a world confined to locations with convenient bathrooms. You are tethered to your purse, in which you carry absorbent pads and maybe a change of clothes. Perhaps even your fashion sense is now dictated by clothing that you can get off in a hurry. Plus, your social life diminishes as your fear of a public accident increases.

What you may not realize is that when you cope with urinary leakage instead of focusing on cure, you deny the effect it has on the quality of your life. Did you know that 40% of women experience urinary incontinence before they reach age 40? And 23% of women have urinary leakage before age 30. Are you prepared to “cope” with urine leakage for half of your life or longer?

Focus on Curing Rather Than Coping with Urinary Incontinence
It’s never too early to seek cure for your urinary incontinence symptoms because the earlier you seek help, the faster you will see positive results. According to the Agency of Healthcare Research and Policy, urinary incontinence can be improved in 8 out of 10 cases. Those are pretty strong odds in your favor.

So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time to stop living a shrinking world where you just cope with your urine leakage? Isn’t it time to start living your life to the fullest by focusing on cure instead?

According to a recent webinar co-sponsored by the American Urological Association, chronic uncertainty is one of the major forms of stress in today’s culture. More importantly, the chronic uncertainty associated with urinary incontinence can cause women to feel levels of stress similar to that felt by people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS). That’s a lot of stress!

What Women with Urinary Incontinence Stress About
Women coping with symptoms of urinary incontinence tend to stress about numerous issues on a daily basis, most of them dealing with uncertainty. They wonder if they:

– smell like urine
– will have an embarrassing accident and leak urine while in public or during sex
– can make it to the bathroom before an accident
– can find enough bathrooms at work
– will be able to get up the courage to ask for help
– will be able to afford adult diapers and other medical aids
– will ever find a cure for their urine leakage symptoms

… and that’s just a short list of worries that can cause a woman to feel chronic uncertainty.

The Stress of Chronic Uncertainty in Urinary Incontinence
The first few times they experience urine leakage, most women feel worry and embarrassment. When the symptoms of urinary incontinence don’t go away, but linger or even get worse, many women begin experiencing chronic uncertainty.

The stress of this uncertainty becomes a factor of everyday life, not just an occasional worry that pops up from time to time. In fact, this kind of stress can have such a strong effect that many medical organizations have recently started recognizing this kind of chronic uncertainty as a “health-related quality of life factor,” and begun using it as a factor in making policy decisions.

Are You Stressing Unnecessarily?
The worst thing about the stress associated with urinary incontinence is that it is usually unnecessary. There are many new and innovative therapies available today for women suffering from urine leakage, and the success rates of these therapies are very high.

So ask yourself what is worse: the daily stress you suffer from dealing with the uncertainty of urinary incontinence, or the possible embarrassment of seeking help from a health practitioner?

Avoid Chronic Stress and Get Help for Urinary Incontinence
Life is stressful enough without having to deal with urinary incontinence on a daily basis. Learn how women are successfully alleviating and curing their symptoms of urinary incontinence by reading these short stories:

Women suffering from urinary incontinence often feel frustrated because they ask for help but don’t seem to get it. This isn’t surprising since, according to the American Urological Association, requests for help with urinary incontinence often get “lost in translation” at the doctor’s office.

For instance, a doctor may ask a patient if she suffers from urinary incontinence, but she may not understand the terminology and just says, “No.” So the woman doesn’t get the help she needs for her urine leakage symptoms. In addition, only about 50% of women suffering from urinary incontinence ever seek help, and only 23% of primary physicians ask their patients about this condition. The result? A lot of unnecessary wet panties.

How Request for Help Get Lost in Translation
During a recent seminar co-sponsored by the National Association for Continence, experts stressed the importance of women taking active steps to communicate clearly with their doctors. They listed many different ways in which a woman’s request for help for her urinary leakage symptoms could get lost in translation. Examples include:

Different Words
Many women don’t understand medical terminology or know what is considered normal when it comes to frequency of urination. A woman who makes many trips to the bathroom might say she does not suffer from urinary incontinence because she does really understand this phrase. She may just think that she goes to the bathroom a lot, not that she has a medical condition. Unless she tells her doctor that she “goes to the bathroom a lot” this conservation never goes any further, and the woman doesn’t get the help she needs.

Making Light of the Situation
Some women arrive at their appointment prepared with a list of questions about urinary incontinence. However, when the issue of urinary leakage is raised, they find themselves too embarrassed to discuss, and make light of the situation. They might laugh it off or make a joke about it. Again, end of discussion.

Doorknob Requests
Women who are embarrassed to discuss their urine leakage with their doctors often can’t bear to bring up the subject until the end of the appointment—literally when their hand is on the doorknob of the exam room and they are ready to leave. At this point, desperate for help, they may turn to their doctor and finally raise the issue. Unfortunately, this late in the appointment, the doctor rarely has the time to engage in a serious discussion or offer serious help, so the patient again does not get the help she needs.

How to Avoid Getting Lost in Translation
If you truly want to and are ready to address your urinary incontinence, there are definite ways you can avoid getting lost in translation when you finally arrive at your doctor’s office. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Be clear about the reason for your appointment when you schedule it. 
Practice saying the words “urine leakage” or “urinary incontinence” if you have to so that you can easily say these words when you book your appointment.

2. Write a list of your symptoms. 
Bring the list with you to your appointment. The list should include the number of times you use the bathroom, how often and how much you leak urine, under what circumstances you leak urine, how long you have experienced symptoms, and what steps you are currently taking to cope with your symptoms. Also be sure to include any medications you are taking.

3. Bring a friend to your appointment.
If you think you might chicken out when it comes to actually discussing your symptoms with your doctor during the appointment, bring a trusted friend or family member. Tell your “buddy” in advance what you want from your visit. Your companion can then remind you what you planned to discuss with your doctor if you forget or become too embarrassed.

Once you get past the barrier of actually asking for help, you will find the rest of the process much easier. Your job, as a responsible advocate for your own health care, is to ensure that you clearly make your request for help to your doctor. If you don’t understand what your doctor is asking or telling you, ask for clarification. Keep asking until you get the information in words that make sense to you.

Finally, if you don’t get the satisfaction you seek from one doctor, look for another. Check out our tips for finding the right doctor for you here:

How to Find the Right Doctor for Your Urinary Incontinence

If you’ve been dealing with wet panties because of urinary incontinence but dreaming about dry ones, then wrap your mind around this:

Recent studies indicate that only about 50% of women suffering from urinary incontinence ever seek help, and only 23% of primary physicians ask their patients about this condition. 

At the same time, the Agency of Healthcare Research and Policy indicates that urinary incontinence can be improved in 8 out of 10 cases.

What does this tell you? It should tell you that there is plenty of help available for women with wet panties, but only if they raise the issue. That’s why it is so important for you to be your own healthcare advocate when it comes to your urinary incontinence.

Five Steps to Being Your Own Healthcare Advocate
No one can be a better advocate for your health than you. Here are five simple steps you can take to become your own healthcare advocate.

Step 1: Find a Doctor
Today there are many healthcare professionals who specialize in treating women’s urinary incontinence. If you’re not sure how to find the right doctor, ask around. Word-of-mouth is still the most common way most women find doctors. You can also ask your primary physician for a referral. Read more about how to find the right doctor for you here.

Step 2: Be Specific About the Reasons for the Appointment
When you schedule the appointment, be sure to let the physician’s office that you wish to discuss your urinary incontinence, since statistics show that if you don’t raise the issue chances are that the doctor won’t either. You may also need to remind the nurse or doctor at the beginning of your appointment.

Step 3: List Your Primary Concerns
During your appointment, be sure to raise your primary concerns about treating your urinary incontinence because your doctor can’t read your mind. Whether your concerns are about the cost of treatment, fear of surgery, lack of success with prior surgeries, or the possibility that your situation may be more serious than just urine leakage, lay your cards on the table so your doctor can address these concerns.

Step 4: Communicate About Yourself and Your Life
You are an expert on your own life. Your doctor is an expert on medical therapies that can help with your urinary incontinence. Your appointment should be like a meeting between two experts. Communicate with your doctor about what kinds of therapies will and won’t fit into your lifestyle. For instance, if you want to improve your symptoms but are not ready for surgery, your doctor can recommend some conservative therapies for you.

Step 5: Decide Whether You Will Take Your Doctor’s Advice
Your doctor can help you improve your urinary incontinence symptoms only if you are willing to follow the suggested therapies. If you feel you can’t follow the suggested approach, be sure to let your doctor know. He or she might be able to suggest some alternative therapies, or you may need to find another healthcare specialist with a different approach.

As you have probably realized the keys to being your own healthcare advocate are to take the needed action steps and to communicate clearly during the entire process. There are many physicians who are experts on therapies to treat urinary incontinence, but you are the only expert when it comes to yourself and your lifestyle. That’s why it’s so important for you to be your own healthcare advocate.

The amount of misinformation floating around about urinary incontinence (UI) continues to astound us, so much so that we feel the need to post yet another blog to debunk these myths. Here are just a few myths about urinary incontinence that we felt were particularly debilitating to women suffering from UI.

UI Doesn’t Interfere with the Quality of Life
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, more than 62% of people suffering from UI rated their quality of life as “good or excellent.” This is despite the fact that in another survey, a high percentage said that the bathroom represents “a symbol of incarceration” because of the constant need to be near toilet facilities due to bladder issues. At the same time, only one in five people feel truly comfortable using bathroom facilities outside their own home. Still think UI doesn’t interfere with the quality of life?

Childbirth Does Not Put Women at Risk for UI
More than 1/3 of women surveyed by the National Association for Continence, including women who had UI symptoms, felt that having a baby did not increase the chances of urine leakage. To the contrary, statistics show that post-partum women are 2.5 times as likely to have UI symptoms as women who have not given birth.

I Don’t Need to See a Doctor about UI
Fifty percent of women suffering from stress urinary incontinence never see a doctor, and the variety of reasons they gave when surveyed for not seeking help are truly amazing:

– 64% said it wasn’t enough of a problem
– 34% assumed it was supposed to happen with age
– 22% were not asked by their doctor
– 19% dealt with it using absorbent pads
– 17% were not aware anything could be done
– 17% were too busy
– 10% didn’t have a doctor

Does this shock you? It shocks us. UI isn’t healthy or normal at any age, and the success rates for UI treatments are high for most women. Don’t just deal with your UI symptoms by yourself. Get help!

Don’t Know Where to Start?
Help abounds for women with UI. Whether you get Google UI treatments or you ask a close girlfriend for a referral to a doctor, there are plenty of resources to help relieve your symptoms. Read the other posts on this blog or check out your symptoms on the Wet Matters website. Here are also some additional online resources to help you out:

National Association for Continence

American Urologic Association Foundation

Medline Plus

Are you a woman suffering from urinary incontinence (UI)? Are you afraid to ask your doctor for help? If so, here are some facts and statistics about UI that may shock you, and give you the courage to ask for help.

You Are Not Alone
Between 13 and 18 million women are regularly affected by UI, and one in four women over the age of 18 has experienced UI. According to the American Association of Family Physicians (AAFP), the number of women affected by UI will only increase as baby boomers age (and there are currently about 79 million baby boomers). At the same time, studies show that about 50% of the women suffering from UI never ask for help. Women who do ask for help wait, on average, almost seven years before doing so.

You are not alone in dealing with UI or in hesitating to ask for help.

Doctors Are More Aware of the UI Problem
According to AAFP, primary care physicians are now seeing many patients complaining of UI. In fact, UI has become has now become a more prevalent issue than even diabetes or Alzheimer’s for these doctors. Urologists and ob/gyns are seeing the same rise in patients complaining of UI. As a result, UI is starting to become one of the issues to which doctors pay close attention. What does this mean for you?

Don’t be surprised if your doctor asks you about UI, and don’t be afraid to raise the issue if your doctor doesn’t ask.

UI is Not Normal at Any Age
An amazing 35% of the women who have never reported their UI symptoms to a doctor have not raised the issue because they assumed that UI was a normal part of aging. We’ve got news for you: UI is not normal at any age. While many aging women do experience UI, not all aging women do. More importantly, there are many treatments available for women experiencing UI at any age.

No matter your age, if you experience symptoms of UI you should get help.

Don’t run around with wet panties when you don’t have to. Arm yourself with knowledge by learning more about UI on this site, or ask for help from your doctor.