What is urinary incontinence?
Urinary incontinence is the accidental release of urine. There are two types of urinary incontinence, stress and urge incontinence.
What is the difference between stress and urge incontinence?
Stress incontinence occurs when you sneeze, cough, laugh or do other activities that put pressure on your bladder. It is the most common type of urinary incontinence in women.
Urge incontinence occurs when the sensation to urinate is so strong that you cannot reach the toilet in time.
What causes incontinence?
Incontinence is a common problem that can be the result of a number of different factors. Stress incontinence can be caused by childbirth, weight gain or other conditions that stretch the pelvic floor muscles. Urge incontinence is caused by over activity of the bladder muscle that pushes urine out of the bladder.
Is incontinence treatable?
Most cases of incontinence can be improved if not cured.
Kegel exercises that strengthen pelvic floor muscles or a removable device that puts pressure on the urethra may be recommended to treat stress incontinence.
For people with urge incontinence, learned techniques to retrain the bladder or medications may be recommended.
When initial treatments for stress incontinence are not successful, surgery may be necessary. The tension-free vaginal tape surgery can be done at the Arnett Surgery Center on an outpatient basis with only small incisions.
For more information about stress incontinence, please talk with your doctor.
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