The inability to control either urine or fecal elimination is Incontinence. This means that you may lose urine or bowel movements to some amount, at times that you do not want to do so.
Causes of Incontinence
Loss of bladder control can occur for a number of reasons
- Weakened muscle control due to age or natural occurrences like childbirth.
- Side effects of surgery.
- Infections or inflammation of the bladder, prostate gland or surrounding muscles.
- Damage caused due to spinal cord injuries.
Types and Symptoms of Incontinence
Incontinence is not a disorder, it is actually a symptom of various conditions, and has several possible causes.
Types of incontinence and related symptoms
Stress Incontinence - It occurs when any movement that puts pressure on the bladder, such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercise, lifting, bending over, etc., causes small amounts of urine to leak. It occurs more often in women, and is usually caused by weakened muscles in the bladder and abdomen.
Urge Incontinence - Also called overactive or spastic bladder, it is a sudden, uncontrollable urge to urinate followed by the release of urine, often in a large amount. It is caused by a sudden, inappropriate and uncontrollable bladder contraction.
Mixed Incontinence - It is a combination of stress and urge incontinence.
Overflow Incontinence - It can occur when the bladder doesn't empty completely during normal urination and small amounts of urine leak or dribble out often and unexpectedly. This can be caused by an obstructed flow or bladder muscles that do not contract fully.
How to treat and prevent incontinence
There are certain steps that will help you to fight incontinence.
- Many women start out by squeezing the wrong muscles. Therefore, it is helpful to learn the technique from the doctor or nurse first and then start working on it.
- By placing a finger in your vagina and squeezing around it you can also check yourself. A pressure around your finger will tell you that you have pressed the right muscle.
- Everything else should be kept relaxed except the muscles right around the vagina. Do not bear down or squeeze your thigh, back or abdominal muscles at that time, and breathe slowly and deeply.
- If you come across any article telling that these exercises can be done anywhere, anytime - that is not necessarily true.
- To get the most benefit out of your exercise, do it for five minutes before you get up in the morning and five minutes before you sleep.
- Once the exercises become easy, you can further strengthen the muscles by squeezing to a count of eight and relaxing to a count of eight. Repeat this for five minutes two times a day.
- You can continue the exercises for five minutes three times a week as soon as you have mastered the task. If you start having problems again with urine loss, you may need to go back to five minutes two times a day.
- It might take some more time. In some cases it is noticed that it takes six to twelve weeks for most women to find a change in urine loss. But if you do the exercises regularly you could cure yourself and avoid surgery.
When to consult a doctor
In case of children, if your child starts bed wetting during day time, you should consult the doctor. For adults, it is better you consult when the leakage of urine is uncontrollable.
