Urinary incontinence affects millions of people. Both genders struggle with bladder leakage and it’s not just a condition that older people suffer from. However, one demographic stands out above the rest. Women are more likely to suffer from incontinence, specifically what’s called stress incontinence. In fact, women are twice as likely to struggle with incontinence as men.
What is Stress Incontinence?
Stress incontinence occurs when the bladder is under pressure. It’s experienced to varying degrees when someone coughs, sneezes, laughs, or jumps. It can also happen when someone lifts something heavy. Anytime the body contracts and puts additional pressure on the abdominal muscles and the bladder muscles, urine can leak.
Stress incontinence occurs much more often in women. There are several reasons for this. The first is that there is a short distance between the bladder and the outside world. The urethra, the tube that urine travels through, is short in women. It’s much longer in men, which means urine has further to travel. It’s true that men who have had their prostate removed have a higher incidence of stress incontinence – perhaps because the prostate is no longer pressing on or impeding the urethra.
Childbirth is another cause for stress incontinence. The pressure of labor and delivery along with the nine months of an additional weight sitting on the bladder, change the shape of the bladder. This can lead to an inability to completely empty the bladder. One sneeze shifts the bladder’s contents and it leaks. Menopause has also been linked to an increased incidence of stress incontinence, as has weight gain.
So What Do You Do About It?
It’s not much fun to worry about leaking urine if you laugh or sneeze. The good news is that there are some basic remedies that can help.
- Tampon – Inserting a tampon into the vagina has been shown to help prevent stress incontinence. It supports the pelvic muscles and puts a little pressure on the urethra.
- Moderate fluid and caffeine intake – If you’re going to be active, consider moderating the amount of caffeine or fluids you take in before you exercise. You don’t want to be dehydrated but you also don’t have to drink a quart of water before you exercise. Also, caffeine is a diuretic which will make you have to urinate more often and more urgently.
- Pelvic floor exercises – Kegels is one exercise that you can perform anywhere. It’s essentially tightening the muscles as if you were to try to hold your urine in. Release the muscles and tighten again. You can perform 50 of these each day.
Stress incontinence isn’t any fun. However, in many cases it is manageable with a few minor lifestyle changes. You can also strengthen the muscles and try the tampon method. It does work quite well for minor to moderate stress incontinence.
