Incontinence
What is Urinary Incontinence?
Urinary incontinence is leaking of urine that you can't control. Many people experience occasional, minor leaks of urine. Others may lose small to moderate amounts of urine more frequently.
Common Symptoms
The main symptom of incontinence is a leakage of urine. This could be a constant dripping of urine or an occasional experience of leakage. If you have incontinence, you might have large amounts or small amounts of leaked urine. You might experience leakage for a wide variety of reasons — often depending on the type of incontinence you have.
You might leak urine when you:
Exercise
Cough
Laugh
Sneeze
Have an urge to urinate, but can’t make it to the toilet on time
Have to get up in the middle of night to urinate
For no obvious reason or without warning
Types of urinary incontinence include:
Stress incontinence. Urine leaks when you exert pressure on your bladder by coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising or lifting something heavy.
Urge incontinence. You have a sudden, intense urge to urinate followed by an involuntary loss of urine. You may need to urinate often, including throughout the night.
Overflow incontinence. You experience frequent or constant dribbling of urine due to a bladder that doesn't empty completely and is constantly full.
Functional incontinence. A physical or mental impairment keeps you from making it to the toilet in time. For example, if you have severe arthritis, you may not be able to unbutton your pants quickly enough.
Mixed incontinence. You experience more than one type of urinary incontinence — most often this refers to a combination of stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
Diagnosis
It's important to determine the type of urinary incontinence that you have. Your symptoms often tell your doctor which type you have. That information will guide treatment decisions.
Your doctor is likely to start with a thorough history and physical exam. You may then be asked to do a simple maneuver that can demonstrate incontinence, such as coughing.
After that, your doctor will likely recommend:
Urine tests. A sample of your urine is checked for signs of infection, traces of blood or other abnormalities.
Bladder diary. For several days you record how much you drink, when you urinate, the amount of urine you produce, whether you had an urge to urinate and the number of incontinence episodes.
Postvoid residual measurement. You're asked to urinate (void) into a container that measures urine output. Then your doctor checks the amount of leftover urine in your bladder using a catheter or ultrasound test. A large amount of leftover urine in your bladder may mean that you have an obstruction in your urinary tract or a problem with your bladder nerves or muscles.
If further information is needed, your doctor may recommend more-involved tests, such as urodynamic testing and pelvic ultrasound. These tests are usually done if you're considering surgery.
Treatment
When it comes to treatment, multiple approaches will be reviewed to help find the best solution to improve your quality of life.
Lifestyle changes: Including modification of diet and habits, will be reviewed in order to maximize the improvement to your incontinence severity.
Pelvic floor exercises: Will be encouraged if there are risk factors to anticipate a weakness in the muscles that support the pelvic floor.
Medications: May be discussed as another means of gaining control over certain types of incontinence.
Surgery: Options are available to correct or minimize certain types of incontinence, including techniques to reduce the activity of the bladder or to support the bladder/urethra
Emsella (offered at Muskoka Urology):
Emsella is a breakthrough, non-invasive, painless treatment that restores pelvic floor function. The Emsella chair creates supramaximal contractions in the pelvic floor muscles, building a stronger and tighter pelvic floor. This strengthening of the pelvic muscles provides sturdier support for pelvic organs like the bladder, improving control and confidence. And there’s a bonus! A stronger pelvic floor frequently enhances sexual function, too
Emsella treatments have delivered extraordinary results. Clinical studies show up to 95% of patients report improvement in quality of life and up to 75% report pad reduction.