Signs And Symptoms Of Urinary Incontinence

Causes Of Urinary Incontinence

First, understand that urinary incontinence isn’t a disease, but a symptom.

It can be caused by everyday habits such as wearing high heels and not exercising enough to more serious underlying medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes or Parkinson’s disease.

Just as the symptoms of incontinence can indicate the type, they can also indicate the cause.

Causes of Temporary Urinary Incontinence

• Alcohol

• Neurological disorders

What Are The Complications Of Urge Incontinence

Urge incontinence can affect your mental health. Some people with severe urge incontinence may be afraid to go out in public. They may worry about being too far from a restroom for fear of an accident. These worries may increase your risk of anxiety and depression.

Because urge incontinence causes you to leak a lot of urine, you may want to wear adult diapers or absorbent urinary pads until treatments take effect. Unfortunately, constant exposure to urine can lead to skin rashes and sores.

Signs That Someone Is Affected By Incontinence

Usually, there are several signs thatsuggest that someone is suffering with bladder incontinence If a family memberor friend has one or more of these signs it, may indicate they are sufferingwith incontinence.

• Smell of urine, either on the person themselves or in their home.
• Someone who was active withdraws and becomes more socially isolated, sometimes only leaving the house for short periods or short distances.
• A toilet must always be close by and will only go on outings or activities if they are certain there is a toilet nearby.
• Frequent changes of clothing
• Spots on clothing or seats.
• Gatherings are kept as short as possible.
• You find products such as pantyliners, larger pads in the bathroom although the person who is possibly affected has surely not had a period for a long time or is a man.
• The person restricts how much they drink or what they drink.8

Remember it is not easy for a person to talk about or accept that they may be incontinent. We have gathered some helpful tips for you so you can help support your relative or friend to live more actively with incontinence.

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Signs Of Urinary Incontinence

The most obvious sign of urinary incontinence is the loss of control of your bladder. Regardless of which type of incontinence you have, you may also experience skin rashes as a result of being constantly wet from urine. You may also develop bladder infections. These symptoms are typically secondary to loss of bladder control, and you may need medication in the form of pills and creams to resolve them.

Treatments For Fecal Incontinence

Fecal incontinence can interfere with your daily life and cause you to withdraw from society for fear of having an accident in public. Speaking to your doctor quickly to find early treatment options is the best way to get the problem under control before it impacts your quality of life. You may want to try any of the following treatments.

• Bowel training

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Symptoms Of Urinary Incontinence

The symptoms of urinary incontinence will often tell you the type of urinary incontinence you have.

Types of urinary incontinence include:

• Stress incontinence. Urine leaks when you exert pressure on your bladder by coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising or lifting something heavy.
• Urge incontinence. You have a sudden, intense urge to urinate followed by an involuntary loss of urine. You may need to urinate often, including throughout the night. Urge incontinence may be caused by a minor condition, such as infection, or a more-severe condition such as a neurologic disorder or diabetes.
• Overflow incontinence. You experience frequent or constant dribbling of urine due to a bladder that doesn’t empty completely.
• Functional incontinence. A physical or mental impairment keeps you from making it to the toilet in time. For example, if you have severe arthritis, you may not be able to unbutton your pants quickly enough.
• Mixed incontinence. You experience more than one type of urinary incontinence.

With stress incontinence, the pelvis or sphincter muscles aren’t strong enough to hold the urine by closing the bladder and urethra.

With urge incontinence or and overactive bladder, the bladder muscles contract too much, pushing urine out even when you are not ready to release it.

Mixed incontinence is usually a combination of both stress and urge incontinence.

What Causes Urge Incontinence

Most people with urge incontinence have overactive bladders. Your bladder is the organ in your urinary system that holds urine.

An overactive bladder causes your muscles in your bladder to squeeze more often than they should. This makes you feel like you have to pee before your bladder is actually full.

The squeezed bladder also causes your sphincter muscle inside your urethra to relax. When this muscle opens, it lets urine leak out.

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Can You Reverse Stress Incontinence

Behavior therapies may help you eliminate or lessen episodes of stress incontinence. The treatments your doctor recommends may include: Pelvic floor muscle exercises. Your doctor or physical therapist can help you learn how to do Kegel exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles and urinary sphincter.

Burning Or Painful Urination

People with UTI often feel a burning sensation when they urinate. This symptom is one of the key signs that a person may have a urinary tract infection.

Burning urination or painful urination is medically known as dysuria. It can be caused by infectious and noninfectious conditions.

A urinary tract infection makes the lining of the bladder and urethra become red and irritated.

In addition to the burning sensation, there is also an itchy or stinging feeling as the urine comes out. The pain can be felt at the start of urination or after urination.

Pain is often felt in the urethra. These are the tubes that carry urine to the bladder. The pain can also extend to the area around the genitals.

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What Are Urge Incontinence Treatments

If pelvic floor exercises and other techniques dont help, your healthcare provider may recommend one of these treatments:

• Medications or bladder botulin toxin injections to relax your bladder muscle so it can hold more urine.
• Nerve stimulation using a device that sends electrical pulses to your nerves. These impulses act as a bladder pacemaker to relax and regulate overactive bladder squeezes. Your healthcare provider may recommend a surgical procedure to place a sacral nerve stimulation device. Or you may have an in-office procedure for percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation .
• to enlarge your bladder using tissue taken from your intestine.
• Urinary diversion surgery to redirect your ureters to a urine drainage bag outside of your body instead of into your bladder.

What Is Urinary Incontinence Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment And Prevention

Urinary incontinence , the involuntary loss of urine, is a very common condition that no one wants to talk about. Because of the stigma that surrounds it, many people are too humiliated to seek help. But most conditions that cause UI can be corrected with medical or alternative interventions.

Occurring much more often in women than men, UI happens when the muscles in the bladder that control the flow of urine contract or relax involuntarily, resulting in leaks or uncontrolled urination. UI itself is not a disease, but it can be a symptom of an underlying medical issue.

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Signs And Symptoms Of Urinary Incontinence

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Urinary incontinence could be embarrassing. In some cases, even when you cough, drops of urine may wet your pants.

There are several types of urinary incontinence. Some of them are due to other medical conditions whereas some of them are due to minor problems.

If you see any of the following symptoms, consult a doctor. In some cases, home remedies may work and in some cases, treatment can help.

What Can You Do To Help Someone With Incontinence

The most important thing first: act!Even if it is unpleasant at first, you have the opportunity to help improvethis persons quality of life. Many people, particularly much older people, donot know that a good and active life with incontinence is still possible andthanks to modern aids and treatment options this is possible.

How you approach the matter dependsvery much on your relationship with the affected person. An open conversationis often the first step. There may also naturally be situations when you haveto proceed more cautiously, and you cannot discuss the subject incontinencedirectly.

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Duration Of Urinary Incontinence

Most cases of UI are chronic, and will remain so until treated. Depending on the cause, however, not all UI cases are chronic. If the cause is temporary, such as a vaginal infection or a urinary tract infection, the UI will stop once the issue is addressed.

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What Are The Types Of Urinary Incontinence

There are different types of urinary incontinence. All of them cause you to leak urine uncontrollably.

• Stress incontinence causes urine to leak because of pressure on the bladder from coughing, laughing or physical activity.
• Mixed incontinence occurs when you have both urge and stress incontinence. More than half of women with urge incontinence also have stress incontinence.
• Overflow incontinence causes you to leak urine because your bladder is too full or you cant completely empty it.

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How You Can Help Someone With Incontinence

Once the silence has been broken, youcan then offer your help and support:

Important: If the affected personindicates that they do not want to talk about the subject or do not need anyhelp, you should respect their wishes and maybe approach the subjectagain at a later date. Always keep in mind that problems with bladderweakness/incontinence cause embarrassment for many people.

And finally, the mostimportant: be brave! Although incontinence can not always becured, with the help of modern medicine and reliable aids, many peoplecan live and have an active life.

1 www.breaking-the-silence.de

PAUL HARTMANN AG & EdelmanIntelligence: Eine europäische Studie zum Leben mit Inkontinenz , February 2019, n=2,311 persons aged atleast 45 years old who have incontinence. The study was conducted in Germany, France , the Czech Republic , Spain andSwitzerland

2

3 Definition source: Definition from the International ContinenceSociety, Abrams et al., 2002: The Standardisation of Terminology of LowerUrinary Tract Function), page 16.32

4& 5 & 6 www.breaking-the-silence.de

PAUL HARTMANN AG & EdelmanIntelligence: Eine europäische Studie zum Leben mit Inkontinenz , February 2019, n=2,311 persons aged atleast 45 years old who have incontinence. The study was conducted in Germany, France , the Czech Republic , Spain andSwitzerland

7 Faecal incontinence

Treatment For Different Types Of Urinary Incontinence

Lifestyle changes and treatments can help with symptoms. Your doctor can help you come up with a plan thatâs right for you.

For stress incontinence, treatments include:

Pads and Vaginal Inserts.

Pelvic floor exercises. If you’ve had a baby, chances are you’ve been told to do Kegel exercises. These help to strengthen the pelvic floor after childbirth. They also help prevent stress incontinence. Best of all, you can do Kegels anytime, anywhere.

Here’s how:

Note: You can learn how to do Kegels by stopping your urine, but donât do this routinely. Stopping the flow of urine can lead to an infection.

Biofeedback. A probe is inserted to monitor when your bladder muscles squeeze. When youâre able to recognize it as it’s happening, you can start to gain control of it. It’s often used in combination with Kegel exercises.

Pessary. For women, doctors may prescribe a device called a pessary that is inserted into the vagina. It repositions the urethra to help reduce leakage.

Injections and surgery. Shots to bulk up your urethral area may help. In more extreme cases, you may need surgery. One procedure pulls the urethra back up to a more normal position, relieving the pressure and leakage. Another surgery involves securing the urethra with a “sling,” a piece of material that holds up the urethra to prevent leakage.

Pads.

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Possible Icebreakers For Talking About Incontinence:

• Use current studies and figures as a conversation starter, for example: Did you know that one in ten people are incontinent? The real number is probably much higher because it is such a hard thing to talk about.
• If you notice that someone is going to the toilet more often than usual, ask if they have a bladder infection as this can be a gentle introduction to a conversation about incontinence.
• First, talk a little about yourself. As a woman, you may be more familiar with temporary bladder weakness during pregnancy or have heard about it from pregnant women in your circle of friends.
• As a man, you can refer to the knowledge that incontinence can occur during and after pregnancy or for a man who you think may be suffering incontinence then mention the likelihood of prostate problems affecting a mans continence as they get older or certainly after prostate surgery to give the person that feeling that he or she is not alone with the problem.

What Are The Risk Factors For Urge Incontinence

Women are twice as likely as men to develop urinary incontinence. Although the problem becomes more common with age, healthcare providers dont consider incontinence a normal part of aging. That means you may be able to find ways to treat it.

Risk factors for urge incontinence include:

• Prostate problems like prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate .

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Blockage Or Narrowing In The Urethra Or Bladder Neck

For you to be able to urinate normally, all parts of your urinary tract need to work together in the correct order. Urine normally flows from your kidneys, through the ureters to your bladder, and out the urethra. If a blockage or narrowing occurs somewhere along the urinary tract, you may have difficulty urinating, and if the blockage is severe, you may not be able to urinate at all.

Medical problems that may narrow the urethra and block urine flow include

Forms Of Urinary Incontinence That Affect Men Only

• Benign prostatic hyperplasia affects about 50 percent of men over the age of 60, and 90 percent over the age of 85 an enlarged prostate can cause sudden and frequent urges to urinate.
• Peyronies disease is the result of injury or damage to penile tissue, causing an abnormal curvature.
• Painful inflammation of the prostate gland

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Male Pelvic Floor Muscles

If either medicine or physiotherapy dont work, surgery to support your bladder and urethra is an option for some types of urinary incontinence.

There are also things you can do to reduce the impact of urinary incontinence. You can train your bladder to improve control and increase the amount of urine you can hold. Talk to your doctor or incontinence health professional about a bladder training program.

If you are caring for someone with incontinence, make sure they can access the toilet easily and that its clearly signposted. Make sure their clothing is easy to remove and monitor their routine so you can remind them to go to the toilet regularly. You can read more about caring for someone with incontinence on the Continence Foundation of Australia website.

What Should I Ask My Healthcare Provider

You may want to ask your healthcare provider:

• What type of urinary incontinence do I have?
• What is causing my urge incontinence?
• What did my test results show?
• Are there treatments I can try at home?
• What are my other treatment options?
• Is nerve stimulation or surgery right for me?
• What are the risks of nerve stimulation or surgery?

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Definition: What Is Incontinence

Urinaryincontinence refers to any involuntaryloss of urine , whether its a few drops or larger volumes.3

The term incontinence is derivedfrom the Latin word incontinens which means not holdingtogether. The ability to voluntarily control emptying of the bladder can be disrupted over the course of your life and can become aproblem in old age in particular. For this reason, incontinence often developsin older people aged over 65 years.4

However, bladder weakness,as incontinence is commonly referred to, can also develop in people of any ageand any sex. Women are more often affected by urinary incontinence thanmen: stress incontinence, when urine is released with physicalexertion such as coughing, sneezing, laughing or exercising like running.Pregnancy can also trigger temporary or long-term bladder weakness becauseduring the pregnancy as the baby grows this can put increased pressure on thebladder and pelvic floor muscles.5

In fact, its estimated that between3 and 6 million people in the UK have some degree of urinaryincontinence. As well as urinary incontinence, there is also faecal incontinence,but this occurs much less often and typically occurs with advanced age.

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According to the Urology Care Foundation, women are at greater risk for UI than men because they have a shorter urethra than men. As a result, any weakness or damage to the urethra in a woman is more likely to cause urinary incontinence. This is because there is less muscle keeping the urine in your bladder until you are ready to urinate.

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How Is Urinary Incontinence Diagnosed

Urinary incontinence is easy to recognize. The primary symptom most people experience is an involuntary release of urine. But the type and cause of the incontinence can be more difficult to determine and may require a variety of exams and tests. Most physicians will use the following:

A bladder diary Your doctor may have you track your fluid intake and output over several days. This may include any episodes of incontinence or urgency issues. To help you measure the amount of urine you pass during an episode of incontinence, you may be asked to use a calibrated container that fits over your toilet to collect the urine.

Urinalysis A urine sample can be checked for infections, traces of blood, or other abnormalities, such as the presence of cancer cells. A urine culture can assess for infection urine cytology looks for cancer cells.

Blood tests Blood tests can look for chemicals and substances that may relate to conditions causing the incontinence.

Pelvic ultrasound In this imaging test, an ultrasound device is used to create an image of the bladder or other parts of the urinary tract to check for problems.

Postvoid residual measurement In this procedure, the patient empties the bladder completely and the physician uses a device to measure how much urine, if any, remains in the bladder. A large amount of residual urine in the bladder suggests overflow incontinence.

UI is usually curable, and if not, then controllable.

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