How Are Bladder Control Problems Treated
There are several techniques for treating bladder control problems. Kegel exercises may help to improve bladder control and reduce urine leakage. In addition, changing your diet, losing weight, and timing your trips to the bathroom may help.
Some suggestions to help with bladder control problems include:
- Switching to decaffeinated beverages or water to help prevent urine leakage. Drinking beverages such as carbonated drinks, coffee and tea might make you feel like you need to urinate more often.
- Limiting the amount of fluids you drink after dinner to reduce the number of trips to the bathroom you need to make during the night.
- Eating foods that are high in fiber to avoid being constipated, since constipation can also cause urine leakage.
- Maintaining a healthy body weight. Extra body weight can put additional pressure on the bladder. Losing weight after your baby is born can help to relieve some of the pressure on your bladder.
- Keeping a record of when you experience urine leakage. Its a good idea to keep track of what times during the day you have urine leakage. If you can see a pattern, you might be able to avoid leakage by planning trips to the bathroom ahead of time.
After youve established a regular pattern, you might be able to stretch out the time between trips to the bathroom. By making yourself hold on longer, youll strengthen your pelvic muscles and increase control over your bladder.
Urinary Incontinence Treatment After Childbirth
There are a wide variety of bladder control solutions available for postpartum urinary incontinence.
The most common treatment option is Kegel exercises which help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles that support the bladder.
If pelvic exercises or pessaries dont quite fix your problem then your doctor might suggest a bladder lift, labiaplasty, or vaginal vault suspension.
These procedures are designed to tighten the loose muscle around the urethra which will help prevent urinary incontinence after childbirth.
Lets see in detail what is exactly Kegel exercises and how it helps in the treatment of urinary incontinence after childbirth?
What Are The Advantages Of The Male Sling Procedure
The male sling procedure is not a major surgery. One of the advantages is that the male sling procedure only requires a small incision in the perineum . Because of this small incision, the recovery time is fairly short. Most patients have their catheters stay in for one to three days depending on surgeon preference.
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Understanding Postpartum Urinary Incontinence
Postpartum urinary incontinence refers to difficulty controlling urination up to one year after giving birth. As your body makes room for a growing baby and progresses through the stages of labor and delivery, the muscles in the pelvic floor stretch and become weaker.
After childbirth, the uterus will shrink back to size which puts pressure on the bladder. Additionally, hormone changes can also impact the ability to control urination after childbirth.Other risk factors for postpartum urinary incontinence include smoking, obesity and genetics.And, a vaginal delivery can lead to a higher risk of experiencing urinary incontinence, compared to a cesarean section.
There are three types of urinary incontinence, but the most common postpartum incontinence is stress incontinence. Putting sudden pressure on the bladder, such as laughing, coughing, sneezing or jumping, can cause urine to leak from the bladder and urethra or create a sudden, intense urge to urinate.
(Many women also experience urinary incontinence later in life. The Pelvic Health After Pregnancy Clinic focuses on care up to one year after childbirth.
Pelvic Floor Exercises Are Key
If you’re pregnant or planning to get pregnant, you should start doing pelvic floor exercises straight away . This will lower your risk of experiencing incontinence after you have your baby .
Do your pelvic floor exercises even if you havent had any leaks or dashes to the loo as they will improve your bladder control . Find out how to do them here.
As long as the birth was straightforward, start the exercises again as soon as you feel up to it . If you had stitches, start lying down and work your way up to doing them while sitting. Start with gentle, short, pelvic floor muscle squeezes.
If you had ventouse, forceps or a caesarean, start your pelvic floor muscle exercises once any urinary catheter has been removed and you are weeing normally.
Don’t assume you don’t have to do these exercises if you’ve had a caesarean. Being pregnant in itself can weaken your pelvic floor muscles so youre still at risk of bladder and bowel problems .
As you feel more comfortable, squeeze a little harder and add in your long squeezes again. Gradually build up how many squeezes you do, and how long you hold. Try to do this four to five times per day. Once your baby is feeding well, put your favourite Netflix show on and youll find this is the perfect time for your exercises.
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How To Get Incontinence Supplies Through Insurance
Follow these steps to see if you qualify to receive incontinence supplies covered by your insurance.
Risk Factors For Incontinence After Childbirth
Women are more likely to have incontinence if they also had leakage problems during pregnancy, particularly in the first or second trimester. Women who also had long deliveries or needed forceps during labor are also more likely to experience urinary leakage.
According to the National Institutes of Health, women who have a natural delivery are 50% more likely to experience incontinence than women who deliver by C-section.
Women with a high BMI, or those who retain pregnancy weight gain after the birth of their child, are more likely to experience incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse after giving birth. Postpartum weight loss decreases the risk of urinary incontinence, even if other risk factors such as age and/or type of delivery method exist.
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Subjective Reporting: Physician Questionnaire Studies
Of the 20 selected articles 1 study of 67 patients contained information that was subjectively reported by physicians via questionnaires.5 Specific data were largely unavailable, including type of incontinence surgery performed, age at surgery, time between surgery and pregnancy, and incontinence status during pregnancy and followup. Of these 67 patients 37 had delivery via cesarean section and 30 had vaginal delivery. Ultimately 10 women experienced postpartum SUI, namely 8 of the 30 who delivered vaginally and 2 of the 37 who delivered by cesarean section.
Bladder Tests Before Urinary Incontinence Surgery In Women May Be Unnecessary
NIH-funded study finds pre-operative office visit alone sufficient for comparable outcomes.
An invasive and costly test commonly done in women before surgery for stress urinary incontinence may not be necessary, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study compared results after both a pre-operative check-up in a doctorâs office and bladder function tests to results after only the office check-up. Women who had only the office check-up had equally successful outcomes after surgery.
Results of the study, done by researchers in the Urinary Incontinence Treatment Network , are posted on the New England Journal of Medicineâs website and will be in the journalâs May 24 print issue.
Urinary incontinence is conservatively estimated to affect 13 million Americans, most of them women. Stress urinary incontinence occurs when the bladder leaks urine when a person coughs, laughs, sneezes or exercises. The stress refers to pressure on the bladder, not emotional stress. Strong pelvic and sphincter muscles can handle the extra pressure from a cough or other sources of stress, but when these muscles are weak, sudden pressure can push urine out of the bladder. Among other causes, childbirth can injure or weaken the nerves, muscles and structures that help support the bladder in women.
NIHTurning Discovery Into Health®
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An Extremely Common Condition
Sorry to report this, but postpartum urinary incontinence is quite common. According to the latest research, women who give birth vaginally are more likely to experience these complications afterward. In some cases, issues of urinary incontinence can last up to a year, and smaller percentages of women are still living symptoms after 5 years.
Contributing factors include the fact that the bladder and pelvis muscles are weakened during childbirth. In addition, the uterus will begin to shrink back to its normal size, which causes repeated compressions on the bladder. Rapid changes in hormones also need to be considered as the body attempts to balance its female sex hormones after a child is born. Women over the age of 35 and those who are obese are also at a greater risk for urinary incontinence following childbirth.
All together, these influential factors lead women to face a much higher risk for urinary incontinence. The good news is that most women can recover with the proper precautions and effective treatment options recommended by Dedicated to Women.
How Is Urinary Incontinence Treated
The treatment will depend on what kind of incontinence you have and how severe it is.
Straight after the birth, you will need to give the pelvic floor time to recover. Ice the perineal area for the first few days and have plenty of rest.
Then you can start with gentle pelvic floor contractions while you are lying down. Hold for 3 seconds, rest for 15 seconds, and repeat 3 times. Try to build up longer holds when you can. Doing these exercises may help prevent longer term bladder problems.
Simple changes to your lifestyle may also help, such as losing your pregnancy weight, eating more fibre, drinking more water and lifting less.
If your urinary incontinence doesnt get better, talk to your doctor. They may refer you to a physiotherapist or continence nurse. Longer term treatments for bladder weakness are exercises, medication or surgery.
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What Causes Incontinence After Prostate Surgery
Urinary incontinence is a potential side effect of prostate removal surgery. The prostate is located just below the bladder and surrounds the urethra. Removing it, or using radiation to treat it, can sometimes cause damage to the nerves and muscles of the bladder, urethra, and or sphincter, which controls the passage of urine from the bladder. This can result in urinary incontinence.
Can Vaginal Delivery Lead To Incontinence
For some women these damaged muscles and ligaments remain weak and do not entirely heal. As time goes on and the normal changes of aging and weakening of the tissues takes place, incontinence may result. At present, only sophisticated and expensive tests like MRI or nerve conduction studies can tell if these muscles and nerves have returned to normal. Unfortunately, there is no convenient, easy way at this point for you or your doctor to know if these muscles are weakened and destined to lead to incontinence. Nor is there presently any remedy for nerve damage.
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Urinary Incontinence Is Super Common
In the three months after childbirth, a third of women suffer from incontinence . Yet a third of those women were embarrassed about mentioning it to their partners and almost half with friends .
Even more worrying? Almost 38% of women said they were self-conscious speaking about the problem with a healthcare professional .
“Incontinence is curable but only if you get help from a midwife, GP or health visitor .”
Medical Record Based Case Series
Of the 20 selected articles 1 used medical records to assess the outcomes of 27 patients who became pregnant after surgery for urinary incontinence.27 This article collected medical records from other physicians by contacting 3,400 obstetricians and gynecologists listed on the French national telephone list. The series included data on 20 patients who had undergone a TVT or TOT procedure for SUI before pregnancy. Patient age at surgery ranged from 20 to 42 years . The time between surgery and pregnancy ranged from 3 to 63 months with a median of 18, while the parity range was 1 to 4.
This study represents 20 cases of pregnancy after incontinence surgery. However, because 1 pregnancy was still ongoing at publication, we included only 19 cases in our analysis. In the pregnancies presented in these articles there were 2 reports of mixed urinary incontinence and 1 of stress urinary incontinence. Of the 19 pregnancies 9 were delivered by cesarean section and 10 were delivered vaginally. Stress urinary incontinence developed in 1 of the 9 patients who delivered by cesarean section and 3 of the 10 who delivered vaginally. The overall incidence of postpartum urinary incontinence, regardless of delivery mode, was 4 of 19 cases . Followup ranged from 3 to 52 months .
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What Are Kegel Exercises
Kegel exercises, also called Kegels or pelvic floor muscle training, are exercises for your pelvic floor muscles to help prevent or reduce stress urinary incontinence. Your pelvic floor muscles support your uterus, bladder, small intestine, and rectum.
Four in 10 women improved their symptoms after trying Kegels.9 Kegels can be done daily and may be especially helpful during pregnancy. They can help prevent the weakening of pelvic floor muscles, which often happens during pregnancy and childbirth. Your pelvic floor muscles may also weaken with age and less physical activity.
Some women have urinary symptoms because the pelvic floor muscles are always tightened. In this situation, Kegel exercises will not help your urinary symptoms and may cause more problems. Talk to your doctor or nurse about your urinary symptoms before doing Kegel exercises.
When Youre In The Hospital
Stress incontinence is a leakage of urine that happens when you are active or when there is pressure on your pelvic area. Walking or doing other exercise, lifting, coughing, sneezing, and laughing can all cause stress incontinence. You had surgery to correct this problem. Your doctor operated on the ligaments and other body tissues that hold your bladder or urethra in place.
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Urinary Incontinence Treatment After Childbirth: Solution Available Now
Some women are lucky enough to not experience any urinary incontinence after giving birth.
Unfortunately, most women do have some degree of urinary leakage due to the stress that childbirth places on the bladder.
Luckily, there are several treatment options available for postpartum incontinence including Kegel exercises and pelvic floor physical therapy.
One easy way to find out if youre experiencing postpartum incontinence is by testing your urine after laughing, coughing, or sneezing.
If you are leaking a few drops of urine during these activities then its likely time to seek treatment before it becomes more problematic!
Disclaimer:
This article is written for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information should not be construed as offering medical opinions. Any of the recommended treatments presented here may cause side effects and complications of varying severity therefore one must always consult a medical professional before administering any treatment.
How Aeroflow Urology Can Help
Aeroflow Urology knows that managing incontinence can be stressful at times, especially if you have a new baby to take care of!
See if you qualify to receive free incontinence supplies, such as bladder pads or adult briefs, by using Aeroflow Urology.
Want to see how it works? Check out the video below.
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What A Prostatectomy Entails
A prostatectomy is the partial or full removal of the prostate gland. It is a common treatment for prostate cancer that hasnt spread outside the prostate. Men with benign prostatic hyperplasia, a non-cancerous enlarged prostate, may also have this surgery.
The prostate sits just below the bladder. The urethra the tube that carries urine out of the body runs directly through the prostate. Pressure from the prostate helps hold urine in the bladder.
The result is a lack of control over urine flow, or incontinence. In general, older men have more problems than younger men with incontinence after prostatectomy.
Frequently Asked Questions Expand All
- What is stress urinary incontinence ?
Stress urinary incontinence is the leakage of urine with physical activity, such as exercise, or when coughing, laughing, or sneezing. It is a common problem in women. SUI can be treated with both nonsurgical and surgical treatment methods.
- What causes SUI?
SUI is a pelvic floor disorder. These disorders occur when tissues and muscles that support the urethra, bladder, uterus, or rectum are damaged.
In SUI, the sphincter muscle that controls the flow of urine from the bladder to the urethra may weaken. Or the muscles that support the position of the bladder and the urethra may weaken. Weakness in these muscles may occur from pregnancy, childbirth, or aging.
- What nonsurgical treatments may help with SUI?
If you have SUI and your symptoms bother you, your health care professional may suggest nonsurgical treatments first. Lifestyle changes, such as drinking less fluid, limiting caffeine, stopping smoking, and losing weight, can help decrease the number of times you leak urine.
Other nonsurgical options include pelvic muscle exercises , physical therapy and biofeedback, or use of a pessary. Another option is an over-the-counter product that is inserted into the like a tampon. If these treatments do not improve the problem, surgery may help.
- What are the surgical treatments for SUI?
Surgery improves SUI symptoms in most women. There are different types of surgery for SUI:
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Colposuspension
Cause of the problem
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