Written by: Debbra A. Livingston MSN, ARNP, BC, Jacksonville District
Urinary Stress incontinence occurs when an activity like sneezing, coughing, laughing, etc., causes a small amount of urine to leak. Stress incontinence (SI) is one of the leading causes of incontinence in women. Stress incontinence is usually seen in older women or in women during pregnancy.
Stress incontinence occurs when abdominal pressure is place on the bladder, which causes urine to leak. The leakage may be as little as a drop or two, or may be a "squirt," or even a stream of urine.
Stress incontinence is often caused by physical changes to the body. Things that can cause these changes include:
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Menstruation
- Menopause
- Pelvic surgery
- Problems with muscles in the bladder -- the organ that holds urine -- and the urethra
- Weakened muscles around the bladder
Self-help techniques and aids can be used to treat mild stress incontinence. In addition, there are a number of treatments available for stress incontinence:
Kegel exercises:
Kegel exercises, also called pelvic floor exercises, help strengthen the muscles that support the bladder, uterus, and bowels. By strengthening these muscles, you can reduce or prevent leakage problems. To do Kegel exercises, pretend you are trying to stop the flow of urine or trying not to pass gas. When you do this, you are contracting the muscles of the pelvic floor. While doing these exercises, try not to move your leg, buttock, or abdominal muscles. In fact, no one should be able to tell that you are doing Kegel exercises.
In bladder training, you "stretch out" the intervals at which you go to the bathroom by waiting a little longer before you go. For instance, to start, you can plan to go to the bathroom once an hour. You follow this pattern for a period of time. Then you change the schedule to going to the bathroom every 90 minutes. Eventually you change it to every two hours and continue to lengthen the time until you are up to three or four hours between bathroom visits.
Weight Loss:
Losing weight may also decrease the abdominal pressure on the bladder.
Surgery:
When other methods for treating stress incontinence don't work, surgery may be an option. Surgery is now minimally invasive and performed on an outpatient basis in most cases.
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