Everything You Might Need To Know About Urinary Incontinence In Women
What is urinary incontinence?
Urinary Incontinence In Women a condition in which you lose control over your bladder. As a result of this, your urine leaks. The kidneys make the urine, while the bladder is responsible for storing it before passing it out through the urethra. The bladder has muscles that tighten themselves when you have to urinate. On the other hand, the sphincter muscles around the urethra relax themselves to let the urine out.
The problem of urinary continence occurs when your bladder muscles tighten up, but the sphincter muscles are not sufficiently strong for preventing the urethra from stopping the urine. It causes an intense and uncontrollable urge to urinate. You may leak a small amount of urine or all of it during it. It affects many people, especially women.
Pressure caused by laughing, sneezing, or exercising can cause you to leak urine. Urinary incontinence may also happen if there is a problem with the nerves that control the bladder muscles and urethra. Urinary incontinence can mean you leak a small amount of urine or release a lot of urine all at once.
What are the types of urinary incontinence in women, and what are their causes?
The most common types of urinary incontinence that are found in women are stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
Stress incontinence
Stress incontinence is the type of urinary incontinence that develops due to some stress or pressure on your bladder. It is caused when your pelvic floor muscles are not strong, and they put increased pressure on the bladder and urethra to make them function. It usually affects young women. Stress incontinence causes women to accidentally leak urine during sudden movements or activities like laughing, sneezing, coughing, etc.
Urge incontinence
On the other hand, urinary incontinence usually happens when you have a strong and sudden urge to urinate even before you get to the bathroom, resulting in urine leakage. This condition is also known as an overactive bladder. In some women, this happens even more than eight times during the day. These women say that once they reach bathrooms, they’re not able to pass much urine. Compared to stress incontinence, it develops in older women usually. Moreover, it does not require you to do any movement or activity. Instead, it can happen anywhere at any time, such as sleeping, eating, orgasming, or even when you hear the sound of running water.
Mixed incontinence
Women who experience both stress incontinence and urge incontinence are believed to have mixed incontinence. In some cases, women with urinary incontinence have both stress and urge incontinence. This is called “mixed” incontinence.
Functional incontinence
In functional incontinence, you’ll know that you need to urinate, but you cannot make it to the bathroom in time. It could be because of confusion, mental health problems, mobility problems, poor dexterity, etc. Elderly people are most likely to experience it.
Overflow incontinence
In overflow incontinence, a bladder cannot hold as much urine as the body makes, or it might not empty the bladder completely. These may lead you to leak urine. Overflow incontinence is much more common in men than women, especially in men with enlarged prostate gland problems.
Total incontinence
Total incontinence is a condition in which you experience constant or periodic urine leakage in large amounts. It can be due to some injury, or you might be born with this defect.
Symptoms of urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is not a disease itself. However, it may indicate some health conditions—for example, weak pelvic floor muscles. There are several symptoms of urinary incontinence other than involuntary urine leakage. They may include:
- Pressure in the pelvic region
- Frequent urge to urinate
- Bedwetting, i.e., urinating during your sleep
Causes of urinary incontinence
Multiple reasons may cause incontinence. These include:
- Aging
When you are becoming older, your risk of developing urinary incontinence increases due to the weakness of pelvic muscles.
- Obesity or being overweight
Your excessive weight might put pressure on your bladder, which can cause the muscles to become weak over time. As said earlier, a weak bladder cannot hold urine for long.
- Movements
Being involved in activities or movements that exert pressure can cause incontinence.
- Constipation
Chronic constipation might put a strain on your bladder and pelvic floor muscles. It ultimately weakens them and can cause your urine to leak.
- Nervous damage
Any kind of damage to your nerves or nervous system can send signals to your bladder at the wrong time to pass urine. In fact, in some cases, it may not send signals at all. Childbirth or health conditions like diabetes can cause nerve damage.
- Prior surgeries
Surgeries that affect female sexual health, such as hysterectomy, can cause damage to the pelvic floor muscles. Damaged pelvic muscles affect the performance of your bladder and cause urinary incontinence.
- Certain medications
Almost all medicines have side effects. Certain compound medications can cause urinary incontinence as a side-effect. Such drugs include diuretics that treat hypertension, kidney diseases, heart failure, etc.
- Excessive intake of caffeine
Taking caffeine in excessive amounts can cause your bladder to become full quicker and cause urine leakage.
- Infections
Infections in the bladder like urinary tract infections can cause urinary incontinence.
- Pregnancy or childbirth
During pregnancy or childbirth, your weight puts a lot of strain on the pelvic region. It can result in urinary incontinence.
Search terms
- Everything you might need to know about incontinence in women
- Causes of urinary incontinence
- Symptoms of urinary incontinence
- Types of incontinence in women
- Stress incontinence
- Urge incontinence
- Most common types of urinary incontinence found in women
- Mixed incontinence
- Lose control of bladder
Urinary Incontinence:
In postmenopausal women, a lack of estrogen causes the tissues of the vagina and urethra to become loose and thin. The loss of elasticity can cause you to experience sudden and frequent urges to urinate. It may lead to involuntary loss of urine or due to any activities that exert pressure on your pelvic area. For instance, laughing, coughing, sneezing, or lifting can cause. Moreover, you may experience urinary tract infections often. Urinary is common in aging women.
In order to prevent incontinence, you should:
- Perform kegel exercises as these strengthen your pelvic floor muscles
- Use vaginal creams
- Take hormone replacement therapy
- Quit smoking
- Lose weight
You can get vaginal creams and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in all forms from the Harbor Compounding Pharmacy. Please visit their website for more details.
What are the types of urinary incontinence in women, and what are their causes?
The most common types of urinary that are found in women are stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
Stress incontinence
Stress incontinence is the type of urinary that develops due to some stress or pressure on your bladder. It is caused when your pelvic floor muscles are not strong, and they put increased pressure on the bladder and urethra to make them function. It usually affects young women. Stress incontinence causes women to accidentally leak urine during sudden movements or activities like laughing, sneezing, coughing, etc.
Urge incontinence
On the other hand, incontinence usually happens when you have a strong and sudden urge to urinate even before you get to the bathroom, resulting in urine leakage. This condition is also known as an overactive bladder. In some women, this happens even more than eight times during the day.
Reference article link:
https://www.thepostcity.com/everything-you-might-need-to-know-about-urinary-incontinence-in-women/
