Treating Stress Incontinence

Diagnosing Stress Incontinence

Anyone who has been experiencing urine loss upon physical impact on a regular basis has a great reason to see their primary care physician. As usual, the consulation will start off with a chat about your symptoms. If you can, prepare a list that details when your symptoms first started, when they occur, how much urine you lose, what medication you use, and anything else that seems relevant. Since your doctor may ask you to keep a journal in which you detail your urine loss incidents, you may preempt that by keeping such a journal for a week or so before you even go to the doctor. This will help your doctor understand the relevant patterns.

Over the course of the diagnostic process, you can also expect a urine sample test, a physical checkup, and a so-called urinary stress test in which the doctor checks what happens when you cough. Urodynamic tests look into the functioning of your bladder in more detail, checking its capacity and pressure, and assessing how much urine is left inside the bladder after you empty it. 

Treating Stress Incontinence And Kissing Bladder Leakages Goodbye

The good news is that your urine loss can probably be remedied. Now, there are an awful lot of treatment options for this problem, and your doctor is most likely to suggest a combination. 

Pelvic floor exercises, like Kegels, serve to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, something that will help enormously if your leakages are caused by a weak pelvic floor. This is especially likely to help a lot if you started leaking after giving birth. 

A pee-and-drink schedule may be instituted as well. This may involve your doctor advising you when and how much to drink, as well as asking you to steer clear of alcohol and coffee, which can make the problem worse. The toilet schedule is likely to involve you taking more frequent bathroom trips that will make it less likely your bladder contains a lot of urine when you cough, laugh, or do anything else that may induce your symptom.

Furthermore, your doctor will probably ask you to lose weight if you're obese, and to stop smoking if you are a smoker. If you have a respiratory condition that involves a lot of coughing, treating that can also help.

Sometimes, however, more radical treatment options are required. A vaginal pessary can help you if you suffer from prolapse, and urethral inserts can also sometimes be used to reduce or halt leakages. Then, there's surgery. Surgery won't be the first line of treatment in most cases, but it's available where needed. These procedures serve to support a weak sphincter or to artificially help it function. 

READ Fecal Incontinence: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment

If you're suffering from stress incontinence, just going to the doctor can seem like a huge step to take. Some people prefer to try to fix the problem by doing Kegel exercises by themselves first, and that may indeed nip urine loss in the bud. If it doesn't, though, know that stress incontinence is a very common problem — your doctor won't be phased by it, and you'll soon be accessing treatment that will make your incontinence a thing of the past.