If you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence and you have finally decided to seek help we applaud you! Why do we applaud? Because about half of all women with urinary incontinence never seek help, and thus never get a thorough and correct medical diagnosis. Plus, the women who do seek medical help wait, on average, almost seven years before doing so. That’s a long time to cope with symptoms of women’s urinary incontinence!
If you have decided to seek medical help for your urinary incontinence, you will be glad you did. Just know that the journey to relieving your symptoms is just that — a journey, not a pit stop. You may have to seek the care of more than one medical professional to get the help you need. To ease your journey, we have written five tips below. Hopefully these tips will help you get the medical support you need as quickly and efficiently as possible.
5 Things You Should Know …
If you have already scheduled an appointment with your family doctor or general practitioner to discuss your urinary incontinence, then you are a giant leap ahead of the affected women who never seek help. Bravo! Now that you have your appointment, here are 5 points of information to help you get the most out of your journey toward freedom from urinary incontinence.
Tip #1: Prepare for Your Appointment
Preparing for your first appointment will help you maximize the time you spend with your family doctor or general practitioner. Preparation is simple. A week before your appointment, begin observing and jotting down your symptoms, even if you know them by heart. Having a list of symptoms–including how many times per day you urinate, how much you urinate each time, how many times per week you have a leakage accident, how much urine you leak, triggers for urinary leakage, and when your symptoms began–will help you communicate quickly and clearly with your doctor. Also list all your current medications, and any other health issues you have, even if you feel they are unrelated to your urinary incontinence. Finally, if you are afraid that you might “chicken out” out the last minute and avoid talking about your urinary leakage issues, enlist the help of a good friend. Ask your friend to accompany you to your fist appointment and gently remind you (if necessary) about the reason for your visit if you somehow “forget”!
Tip #2: Prepare a List of Questions
As you can probably tell, lists are important in this process! Preparing a list of questions to ask doctor about your condition will help you get the answers you need about your condition. If you don’t know what to ask your doctor, check out this list as a “template” for making your own list.
Tip #3: Know What Your Doctor Will Ask You
In addition to asking your doctor the questions you want answered, you also need to be able to answer your doctor’s questions about your condition. For your doctor to be able to help you, you need to be able to discuss your condition honestly and without embarrassment. Knowing ahead of time the questions your doctor will likely ask you can help. Prepare for your appointment by scanning this list of potential questions.
Tip #4: Know That Your First Appointment Won’t Be Your Last
Your first appointment with your family doctor is just that — the first stop on your journey towards symptom relief. Chances are that your general practitioner can offer you some help with basics, such as reviewing your medications, medical history, and lifestyle habits for any triggers that may be causing your urinary leakage. For instance, some medications are diuretics and could be causing you to urinate much more frequently than normal. Chances are also good that your doctor will refer you to a specialist–probably a urologist–who will perform more specific tests to more thoroughly assess your condition. Taking the time to see the referred specialist is important because these specialists can often offer a wider range of therapies tailored specifically to your condition. If your first appointment merely leads to a referral, don’t be discouraged. A referral to a specialist is normal in the treatment protocol for treating women’s urinary incontinence, and should be regarded as progress on the journey!
Tip #5: Persist Until You are Satisfied
How do you know when your “journey” has come to an end? Simple. Your journey is complete when you are satisfied with your level of symptom relief–whether that means a major reduction in urinary leakage accidents or complete freedom from all symptoms. At the end of the day, the only one who can say whether the therapy for urinary incontinence is “good enough” is you. This means that you should not give up on seeking help until you are satisfied, even if that means combining multiple therapeutic approaches such as medication and minor surgery. In addition, you should know that your treatment choices may change with time. A conservative treatment like medication may relieve your symptoms for years, only to stop working at a certain point (such as when you reach menopause). Want to know more? Read about how your treatment options may change over time.
Armed with these 5 tips, you are now ready to embark on your journey to get the medical support you need for your women’s urinary incontinence. May the force of your persistence be with you until you are satisfied with your own health. After all, you are at the center of your own “patient-centered” healthcare model!
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