“I can’t hold my pee” is a statement in the minds of many men and women. The reality is that urinary incontinence is something that many people face and haven’t reached out to their doctor about due to various reasons. If you can’t hold in your pee the way you used to, you might be dealing with urinary incontinence.
Describing Urinary Incontinence
The loss of bladder control is also known as urinary incontinence. This is the occasional leak of urine or having to urinate and not being able to reach the bathroom on time. Urinary incontinence can also be thought of as an overactive bladder.
Both men and women can have overactive bladders. Most of the time, we hear more about female urinary incontinence, but it’s important to know that men get it as well. In fact, men are more likely to have symptoms of urinary incontinence early. For men, the prostate plays more of a role, which is why symptoms may show up early. Regardless, both genders can deal with incontinence.
Is Age the Only Reason For Having Urinary Incontinence?
Many people associate getting older with bladder issues, but there are other causes or types of urinary incontinence. Here are the 5 types of urinary incontinence.
- Stress incontinence: Leaking happens when a person coughs, sneezes, laughs, exercises, or lifts something heavy. All these actions put pressure or “stress” on the bladder.
- Urge incontinence: When someone experiences a strong urge to urinate, and all of a sudden cannot hold the urge.
- Overflow incontinence: This happens when the bladder isn’t completely emptied after urinating and causes frequent dribbling of urine.
- Functional incontinence: This is triggered by a physical or mental injury that keeps a person from getting to the restroom on time.
- Mixed incontinence: A combination of more than one type of incontinence.
How to Treat & Manage Urinary Incontinence?
No matter what is causing the incontinence or what kind of incontinence someone has, there are things to help stop or control it. In reality, incontinence can affect a person’s everyday life and leave them feeling embarrassed. So, how can it be treated or managed? Let’s jump right in!
When it comes to treatment, it’s important to know your type of bladder control problem, how serious it is, and your lifestyle. All are taken into consideration. There is the option of bladder control training, medical treatments, and lifestyle changes.
Bladder Control Training
- Exercise Pelvic Muscles: The pelvic muscles support the bladder system. So, by exercising them by doing Kegel exercises, leaks can be avoided, and urine can be held in longer.
- Schedule time to Urinate: It’s easy to control the bladder when it’s on a schedule. Plan when to urinate, sticking to that time and slowly increasing it as time goes on. This helps with holding urine longer.
- Distract yourself: When the urge to urinate comes, you can distract yourself from those thoughts by taking relaxing deep breaths, staying still, or squeezing your pelvic floor muscles.
Medical Treatment
- Medication: There are pills, patches, and liquid medications that can be prescribed to help with bladder control.
- Medical devices: Devices such as a catheter, urethral insert, or vaginal pessary can be used for those with low bladder control. The catheter drains urine from the bladder, the urethral insert prevents leaking, and the vaginal pessary ring puts some pressure so that there isn’t any leakage.
- Surgery: In some cases, urinary incontinence can be caused by the bladder changing position or an enlarged prostate. If this is the case, a doctor would recommend surgery to cure the incontinence.
Lifestyle Changes
- Try using absorbent products: Products such as pads and adult diapers and available in store for adults with incontinence. It’s easy to do research and choose which would fit best in your daily routine. (Do not confuse feminine hygiene pads with the ones for urinary incontinence).
- Toilet substitutes: There are portable devices to help just in case you can’t get to the regular toilet. Some of these devices include commode seats, bedside commodes, bedpans, and urinals.
- Avoid certain traits: Quitting smoking, losing weight, not drinking alcohol, and choosing water over other drinks can help with bladder problems. Additionally, avoid drinking anything before bed and lifting heavy objects.
Know When It's Time to See A Doctor
Many people are uncomfortable speaking to their doctor about bladder problems. The truth is that there is nothing to be embarrassed about, and they are there to help. Watch out for these signs; if they are happening to you, it’s time to speak to your doctor.
- Needing to urinate more frequently
- Cloudy or bloody urine
- Pain when urinating
- Urinating more than 8 times a day
- Trouble starting or having a weak urine stream
- Urinating small amounts after having a strong urge to urinate
