|
For many women, urinary incontinence is nothing to sneeze
at. You see, sneezing, coughing or laughing will make them wet themselves.
The World Health Organization estimates 200 million people
in the world suffer from incontinence. It causes much anxiety and embarrassment, for obvious reasons.
Most of us have had that awful feeling of a bit of wee
coming out during a coughing attack or a big sneeze. This can happen when your bladder's a bit full and is quite
normal. You can also pee a little in bed at night if you have a bladder infection. But to do this on a regular
basis is certainly not normal.
The whole urinary system is rather complex. Your bladder
is a big muscle which stores urine. The urine is held by the sphincter muscles which relax a little to let the
urine out into a tube called the urethra - similar to squeezing the end of a balloon together so the air won't
escape. Your pelvic floor muscles below the bladder act as another barrier to hold back the urine so it won't just
trickle out when it feels like it.
As you develop from childhood, your nervous system informs
your brain that it's wee time. If you're asleep you either hold on until the morning or wake up and go to the toilet.
Many people dream about going to the toilet and sit down ready to go then...ding ding ding...the brain's alarm
goes off in the nick of time and you must get up and go to the real toilet...the one with the cold seat!
Interestingly, the experts aren't quite sure what causes
bed wetting in older children. A small bladder or excess urine production may be to blame.
A common form of incontinence which seems to plague women
is stress incontinence. This is what we mentioned at the top, where a cough or laugh will bring forth a small gush
of pee. Only with stress incontinence, this happens all the time, not just on rare occasions. It may only be a
few drops but enough for a panty change. Some women even need to wear pads.
Why do we get this thing? Our poor old bladder cops a fair
amount of pressure from sex, childbirth and getting older (although it is not an "old person's" disease).
The bladder and urethra can 'drop'. This makes the urethra shorter and wider and the pelvic floor muscles are unable
to hold back the urine like it did before the damage - like pulling the balloon ends wider so bits of air leak
out.
Because women are so embarrassed to discuss the problem,
many suffer in silence and are totally unaware that incontinence, in most cases, can be cured.
Non-surgical methods include Kegel exercises which strengthen
the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are the ones you use to stop urinating or farting. The Kegel is very simple:
squeeze the muscles -without using your stomach muscles - for 10 seconds. Repeat this around 15 to 20 times. Do
a few sessions of Kegel each day. The good thing is, you can do this exercise anywhere.
Before you sneeze, cough, or do something that normally
causes incontinence, squeeze your pelvic floor muscles. Over time they will become stronger and control your urine.
Or perhaps surgery may work better. There are a few procedures
but the most popular is the sling method. A strip of tissue is attached under the bladder neck and secured to the
pelvic bones or abdominal wall to support the bladder. It is a very simple procedure and the success rate is quite
high.
If you suffer from incontinence, do see your doctor. You
don't need to lock yourself away from the public or damn yourself to a life of wearing large pads.
For more info see incontinence.org
|
