Tips & strategies
Voiding diary
Before meeting with your doctor, take the time to keep a voiding diary
for a few days. This diary is essential for analyzing the problem of
urinary incontinence and will make it easier to choose the appropriate
treatment.
How to fill it out
Ideally, you should choose some weekdays and some weekend days. Each day should be tracked for 24 consecutive hours, and each of the following columns needs to be properly filled out.
Bathroom visits
- Check every time you use the bathroom to urinate.
Urine leakage
- Check every time there is leakage, whether during a visith to the bathroom or not.
Reminder list for your medical appointment
- I experience urine leakage when I cough, laugh, sneeze or make an effort.
- I feel a strong need to urinate and I don’t have time to get to the bathroom.
- I don’t notice my urine leakage or my desire to urinate.
- I get up several times a night to urinate.
- I am always going to the bathroom.
- I need to change my urinary protection X times a day.
- I don’t go out anymore, because I’m afraid I won’t be able to get to a bathroom in time.
Kegel exercises
For any type of urinary incontinence, exercises that strengthen the pelvic floor muscles can reduce symptoms by helping you hold while you find a bathroom. You will need to do them every day for 8 to 12 weeks before you can expect to see improvement. The benefits of these exercises will continue ONLY as long as you do them! Even 98-year-old women have managed to heal their incontinence after doing these exercises and eliminating tea from their diet!
You can print out a brochure that explains how to do the exercises.
Take the leap! Talk about incontinence, you’ll feel better in the end!
