What is urinary incontinence?
Urinary incontinence means that you can’t always control your urination, and you risk wetting your undergarments. It’s considered urinary incontinence as soon as you leak even just a few drops of urine. The condition can become embarrassing, and some people even choose to isolate themselves because of it, but it can be treated.
While urinary incontinence affects women more than men, 1.5 million Canadians of every age suffer from the condition. Childbirth and menopause are critical times for women; 50% of women aged 60 and over suffer from urinary incontinence, and most of them suffer in silence.
Types of urinary incontinence
There are five major types of urinary incontinence:- STRESS INCONTINENCE
- When urine leakage happens when a person sneezes, coughs, laughs or lifts heavy objects, this is known as stress incontinence.
- URGE INCONTINENCE
- When a person’s need to urinate is sudden and irrepressible and needs to be immediately acted upon, it’s called urge incontinence.
- MIXED INCONTINENCE
- This diagnosis covers the combination of stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
- OVERFLOW INCONTINENCE
- More frequent in men than in women. Happens when there is an overflow of urine in the bladder.
- FUNCTIONAL INCONTINENCE
- Happens when there are mobility problems or environmental factors at play preventing the person from reaching the bathroom in time. Kegel exercises can help strengthen pelvic floor muscles to prevent leakage from happening.
Overactive bladder
If you often have sudden, strong urges to urinate, or you feel like you constantly want to urinate, you may be suffering from an overactive bladder, a common condition that is not a type of urinary incontinence. However, if in addition you experience accidental leakage due to the pressing need to urinate, your condition might be called urge incontinence. In both cases, treatments are available. Consult your healthcare professional or the site www.overactivebladder.ca.
In Canada, it’s estimated that one person out of five suffers from an overactive bladder.
You don’t need to live with an overactive bladder. There are solutions to help you! Talk about it with your doctor.
How does a normal bladder work?
When a person eats or drinks, the kidneys work to eliminate the substances the body doesn’t need and transform these waste matters into urine, which accumulates in the bladder. The bladder looks like a little bag that contracts to squeeze the urine out of the body once it’s full.
When the bladder starts to fill up, the nerves surrounding it send a message to the brain telling it to empty the bladder. During voluntary miction, the brain then sends a message to the bladder’s main muscle (the detrusor) to expulse the urine. (See the diagram.)
