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Incontinence in Women

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Incontinence in women is a common condition, although it should never be considered as normal, nor should it be considered to be an expected part of the aging process. Women are affected by incontinence more often than men, a fact that can be blamed on pregnancy and childbirth in many cases.

Many women suffer from stress incontinence during pregnancy, generally in the last trimester. This is largely due to the weight of the growing baby placing excess stress on the bladder. In addition, hormones in pregnancy can cause muscles to relax, particularly the pelvic floor muscles. Pregnant women should practice Kegel exercises during pregnancy and continue after the baby is born in order to keep pelvic muscles strong and prevent incontinence. Stress incontinence of pregnancy often resolves when the baby is born.

Childbirth itself can damage pelvic floor muscles and other pelvic structures, resulting in incontinence in women later in life. A large baby, a prolonged labor, an episiotomy, the use of instruments such as forceps or vacuum extraction and other complications can increase the incidence of incontinence later on.

As women age, it is thought that changing hormone levels can also predispose them to the development of incontinence. These changing hormones can cause a relaxation of muscles involved in urination.

There are other known factors that may contribute to incontinence, such as obesity, smoking, alcohol use, caffeine use and certain foods that may irritate the bladder. Infection or stones anywhere in the urinary tract may also lead to incontinence.

Incontinence in women is a complicated issue. Women who experience incontinence should visit their physician so that the cause of incontinence can be determined and appropriate treatment can be started. In many cases, incontinence in women can be cured, or improved greatly. Quality incontinence products such as the ones found at DryForLife are also very helpful for managing incontinence and maintaining an active lifestyle.

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What is a Continence Assessment?

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

A continence assessment is performed by a healthcare professional to assess your ability to control bladder or bowel function and to determine factors that may be contributing to incontinence.

A continence assessment is essential for continence management and generally consists of two parts: an interview and a physical assessment. In addition, you may be asked to complete a bladder diary prior to your assessment. A bladder diary is a diary of symptoms and what you were doing at the time symptoms occurred. For example, you may be asked to record how many times you were incontinent; activities you were doing at the time of incontinence; how much fluid you drank and when, and other things that may be associated with incidences of incontinence. A bladder diary can provide valuable clues as to the type of incontinence you are facing and activities that may be contributing to incontinence.

The interview portion of a continence assessment consists of a series of questions, some of which may seem unrelated to your problem; however, there is an underlying purpose for all questions asked. You may be asked the following:

- Prior medical history
- Medications you are taking
- Overall health/general health
- Weight
- Alcohol use/caffeine use
- Smoking history
- Pregnancy/childbirth history (for women)
- History of prostate problems (for men)
- Whether you are menopausal (for women)
- Problem with frequent constipation
- Diabetic or symptoms of diabetes

The physical assessment portion of the continence exam may include a urinalysis to check for kidney or bladder problems, like an infection. In addition, your healthcare professional (usually a nurse continence specialist or a physician) may perform a physical exam, including a vaginal exam for women and a rectal exam for men. This is done to assess the strength of pelvic floor muscles, evidence of prolapse (women) or prostate disease (men). A physical assessment may make it easier for the healthcare professional to pinpoint a physical problem that may be causing incontinence.

A continence assessment can help to determine the cause of incontinence, as well as provide ideas on how to manage incontinence. From the continence assessment, it may be determined that more tests are required to determine the cause of the problem, or the underlying cause for the incontinence may be clearly evident. Anyone who is suffering from incontinence should have a continence assessment done by a trained professional.

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Urinary Incontinence Treatments

Monday, August 9th, 2010

If you suffer from urinary incontinence, you may be wondering what treatments are available to you. Urinary incontinence treatments range from self help remedies to medication to surgery. Generally, treatment of urinary incontinence starts with self-help remedies.

As far as urinary incontinence treatments go, self-help remedies are the least invasive and have no troublesome side effects. In some cases, self help remedies are all that is needed to improve or cure incontinence, which is why most doctors prefer their patients start will these simple measures to treat incontinence:

Limit Fluid Intake – Decreasing the amount of fluids taken in close to bedtime may decrease nighttime incontinence. Individuals who drink a lot of fluids may find that incontinence symptoms improve if they cut down on the amount of fluids they drink during the day as well.

However, you do not want to decrease your fluid intake to the point of dehydration, as this may lead to bladder infections and other problems.

Avoid alcohol and Caffeine – Caffeine can irritate the bladder, and both caffeine and alcohol can act as mild diuretics, increasing the frequency of voiding. They may also contribute to a sense of urgency to void. Simply cutting these two substances out of your life may drastically improve incontinence.

Avoid Acidic Foods – Citric foods and juices, as well as tomatoes and other acidic foods may irritate the bladder, increasing the likelihood of incontinence. Avoiding acidic foods and juices may decrease episodes of incontinence.

Lose Weight – Excess weight puts added pressure on the bladder, which may exacerbate stress incontinence. Losing weight may markedly improve symptoms of incontinence.

Quit Smoking – Smoking can lead to a chronic cough, and coughing is often a factor in stress incontinence. Quitting smoking may reduce coughing spells, which may in turn decrease stress incontinence.

Kegel Exercises – Kegels are exercises designed to improve pelvic muscle tone. Strengthening pelvic floor muscles may improve incontinence. Kegels are often prescribed as first-line treatment to those suffering from urinary incontinence.

Self-help remedies are not invasive, cost nothing and are often effective in improving or curing urinary incontinence. Other urinary incontinence management involve medications, which may have intolerable side effects. Surgery comes with its own set of risks and is often a last resort in urinary incontinence treatments.

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Making Sense of Mixed Urinary Incontinence

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

There are many different variables to consider when you are considering the underlying causes of incontinence. Most common in elderly men and women, incontinence is by no means isolated to this age group. It can also be found in younger people, and might even be more common than you think. Women tend to suffer from the symptoms of incontinence more frequently than men, because of toll that pregnancy and childbirth take on the body. However, incontinence can also be caused by infection, disease, injuries and surgery in both women and men of all ages.

Sometimes the manifestation of incontinence is a little fuzzy in that it is not clearly one type or another. Rather it seems to be a combination of two different types. For example, there are three main types of urinary incontinence, which are stress, urge and overflow incontinence. Stress incontinence happens when a sudden pressure is inflicted on the area of the abdomen affecting the bladder. Something like a sneeze, laugh, cough, or straining when lifting a heavy object is enough to cause stress incontinence. Weak or damaged pelvic floor muscles are usually the culprit of stress incontinence. This type of incontinence is very common after pregnancy and childbirth or prostate surgery.

The problems associated with urge incontinence appear seemingly out of nowhere, and if you cannot find a restroom immediately, you are very likely to have an accident. Since this type of incontinence is marked with a sudden and uncontrollable bladder contraction, it is frequently managed with medication to quiet the spasm of the bladder. This type of incontinence most frequently occurs in older men and women.

When you have the symptoms of two types of incontinence intertwined and manifesting themselves in concert, the condition is known as mixed incontinence. While mixed incontinence can be a combination of any of the three types of incontinence, it is most often stress incontinence mixed with urge incontinence. When a doctor is treating a case of mixed incontinence he or she will first treat the dominant symptoms, and then address the less dominant symptoms.

Then treatments for mixed incontinence are the same as they are for each individual type of incontinence, and your medical professional can help you define whether behavior modification, physical therapy, medication or surgery is the appropriate course of action for your specific case of incontinence. The treatment recommendation will change depending on the underlying cause of your incontinence.

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Incontinence in Older Adults

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

There are many underlying factors that can lead to incontinence, and even though incontinence can occur at any age, it is still far more common among the elderly. As an elderly person becomes infirm and bedridden, they are twice as likely to have some kind of incontinence problem, and overall, men are half as likely as women to have a problem with incontinence as they age.

During the ageing process, the bladder is getting older right along with the rest of you. As your muscles become less pliable, so does your bladder, and this reduced elasticity yields a bladder that cannot stretch to accommodate the same volume of urine that it did when it was younger. Bathroom visits become more frequent as you age, so sometimes mobility can be the deciding factor between continence and incontinence.

As the bladder muscle weakens, it may not fully empty the bladder, which may result in overflow incontinence. The bladder muscle may also begin to suffer from unexpected spasms, which can result in the symptoms for urge incontinence resulting in either light or heavy incontinence. Along with the bladder, the urethra also looses strength and elasticity as you age, and when you couple this diminished strength along with kidneys that are not functioning up to par, you have the perfect recipe for incontinence. Since the job of kidneys is to concentrate the urine that is stored in the bladder, when they are not functioning properly, the likelihood of incontinence is compounded. It is not bad enough that your urethra and kidneys are compromised with age, but the pelvic floor muscles are also weaker in an older person. So you have a weakened support system for your internal organs; your urethra is not working as efficiently as it once did to hold back the flow of urine, and your kidneys are letting large volumes of liquid travel to your bladder. It is no wonder that incontinence is more prevalent in older persons than in their younger counterparts.

Then elderly women have a couple of additional factors working against them, which lead to the increased risk of incontinence. First, as they go through menopause, their hormone levels shift resulting in an estrogen deficiency, and secondly the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth result in more frequent incontinence among women than men. Older men still do have a little bit to worry about when it comes to incontinence though, because one of the side effects of prostate surgery can be incontinence. In the case of prostate surgery, incontinence can be permanent, or it may only be a temporary condition.

It is important to know that ageing is a contributor to incontinence, however, incontinence is not a normal condition of ageing. This means that if you have any signs of incontinence you should discuss them with your health care professional, because incontinence is a symptom of an underlying problem, which needs to be addressed. Your doctor can help to pinpoint the cause of your incontinence and recommend a treatment for it.

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Bladder Care Fights Incontinence

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Because of stresses that pregnancy and childbirth place on a woman’s body, much of the discussion surrounding incontinence is geared towards women; however, men do suffer from incontinence too. Especially as people get older, incontinence becomes a problem for men as well as women. While incontinence is not a normal part of ageing, its occurrence does become more frequent with ageing. So it is always important to ferret out the underlying cause of incontinence, and then treat that problem to resolve the incontinence symptom. While you are working with your doctor to resolve any problems that pertain to a weak bladder, here are some things that may help reduce the incidence of incontinence.

Drink, Drink, Drink!
If you have a weak bladder, and you find that you are suffering from incontinence as a result of it, your first inclination may be to drink as little as possible. However, this simple plan to curtail incontinence can actually backfire on you. If you cut your liquid intake too low your urine will become very concentrated, which can irritate your bladder making the likelihood of incontinence even higher. On the flip side, drinking too much water will cause your body to send an increased volume of liquid to your bladder, which will also increase the likelihood of incontinence. So it is important to hydrate properly.

Think Before You Drink
While you may love slurping down your morning coffee, a mid afternoon soda or an evening glass of wine, there are some drinks that just make the bladder angry with incontinence following not far behind. Caffeinated, carbonated and alcoholic drinks all irritate the bladder and act as a diuretic, so think before you drink, and stay away from drinks that ultimately cause more harm than good.

Healthy Weight = Healthy Bladder
When you are overweight you put extra stress on all of your body’s functions, including your bladder. So eating too much and drinking too much can weaken the bladder and just push it to the brink of incontinence. Mind what you eat and drink to help maintain bladder health.

Smoke? Stop
Smoking is not good for your health in general, and while the smoke itself does not affect incontinence, the cough that the smoke produces can affect incontinence. Chronic coughing puts unnecessary pressure on the bladder, and this pressure is a contributor to incontinence.

Exercise Everything
Muscles weaken over time, and the muscles of your pelvic floor are certainly no exception to the rule. The good news is, though, that you can keep your pelvic floor muscles in shape by exercising them just like any other muscle in your body, and the really good news is that ‘working out’ your pelvic floor muscles substantially improves about seventy five percent of moderate to light cases of incontinence.

Your bladder will weaken as you age, but incontinence should never be considered an inevitable part of ageing. Taking care of your health by exercising and watching your diet can go a long way towards maintaining your bladder’s health and avoiding any incidents of incontinence altogether.

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Postponing the Need for Incontinence Pads for Women

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Urinary incontinence affects one in three women over the age of sixty, and women are twice as likely as men to develop problems with incontinence. Women are commonly afflicted with stress incontinence, which occurs as a result of weakened pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are weakened as a result of pregnancy, childbirth or menopause. Urge incontinence and overflow incontinence can also occur as a result of nerve damage to the bladder, kidney stones, infection or spinal damage. There are any number of different causes for a woman’s involuntary urination prompting the need for incontinence pads for women.

However, a Swedish study that was published in an issue of Fertility and Sterility draws a strong connection between oral contraceptive use and a measurable decrease in incidents of urinary incontinence among women approaching menopause. The study was conducted as a web based survey. The surveyors questioned over 10,000 women from the Swedish Twin Registry who were older than twenty three and younger than fifty. The line of questioning was interested solely in the connection that oral contraception has with any increase or decrease of urinary incontinence. The study found that as women used birth control their risk of suffering from symptoms of stress incontinence, urge incontinence or a combination of the two was severely diminished. Overactive bladder sufferers also realized a reduction in their symptoms, but not enough to consider oral contraception helpful in controlling the symptoms for an overactive bladder.

What is interesting about this study is that up until this point most other studies concluded that administering hormones to patients generally worsened their condition instead of improving it. Therefore, what researchers have discovered is that hormones have a completely different effect on younger women than they do on older women, because when the hormones are administered to perimenopausal women the symptoms of urinary incontinence noticeably improved.

Oral contraceptives have long been known to combat bacterial vaginosis and offer protection against pelvic inflammatory disease, and now they are showing promise in the treatment of some types of urinary incontinence in older women. Since hormones affect virtually every part of your body, you want to always consult your physician before considering taking oral contraception. So, if you are an older woman suffering from urinary incontinence, rather than simply stock up on incontinence pads for women, you may want to talk to your doctor about taking birth control pills to manage your urinary incontinence situation. And as you are getting your problem under control, remember that DryForLife has been helping their customers find just the right products for over forty years, and we offer speedy and discreet shipping.

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Surgery for Urinary Incontinence in Men

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Incontinence in men and women is the same yet different. While some causes of incontinence, like weak pelvic floor muscles, are the same for both genders, because the anatomy of men and women is so very different, there are some surgical options that are available for urinary incontinence in men that would not be applicable to women.

For example, using an artificial sphincter to treat urinary incontinence in men is an option that is not available for women strictly for anatomical reasons. The sphincter is crafted from silicone, which is a type of rubber. It is fitted around the urethra at the entrance to the bladder, and it contains an inflatable cuff, which is controlled manually. Once the cuff is in place, a small tube connects it to the control pump which is placed in the scrotum.

To keep urine from leaking from the bladder the cuff is inflated, and when the bladder is full, it is deflated mimicking the action of a real sphincter muscle and releasing the urine flow. This type of surgery is usually the last line of treatment for urinary incontinence in men where other treatments have failed. This surgery is performed in the hospital because it is a fairly invasive surgery, however it enjoys a near perfect satisfaction record from men who have undergone the procedure.

As with any surgery there can be complications such as bruising and swelling at the surgical site, infection, problems with the anesthesia, and it is not uncommon for a followup surgery to be required for fine tuning. Because of these complications, this surgery is generally not performed unless all other types of urinary incontinence treatments have proven ineffective. Depending on the severity of the incontinence problem, some men may prefer to manage their problem with incontinence products like absorbent pads or pressure cuffs.

There is an opportunity cost for every incontinence treatment, so always carefully weigh the pros and cons of any treatment before settling on it. As you are working through your incontinence problem, it is important to have quality products available that you can tailor to your needs. At DryForLife we have been helping men find just the right products for their particular situation for over forty years, and we are only a phone call away. You can order online or by phone and have your products delivered right to your front door quickly and discreetly.

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5 Ways to Help Limit Bladder Weakness in Men

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

If you are a man, you may find that as you age you begin having problems with urinary incontinence, and while this condition certainly becomes more common as the years pass, it should never be considered a normal side effect of ageing. Of course muscles weaken with age, and your bladder and pelvic muscles are no exception. So whether you are just starting to deal with urinary incontinence, or if you have been managing it for a while, here are five things that you can do to stack the continence deck in your favor and limit the effects of bladder weakness in men.

1.Drink Plenty of Liquids
As your bladder muscles begin to weaken it is tempting to cut back the amount of liquids that you consume. Unfortunately while this idea may make sense on paper, it will not work in practice, and here is why. As you drink less water, your urine becomes more concentrated, and this concentrated urine further aggravates the bladder increasing the likelihood of adult incontinence. However, you do not want to drink too much water either, because this will increase the amount of urine that your body makes, which also increases the chances of incontinence. So the best rule of thumb is to drink in response to your natural thirst signals.

2.Stay Away from Party Drinks
There are certain foods and drinks that can aggravate the bladder, and it is a good idea to stay away from them if you are noticing a weakening in your bladder. Carbonated drinks, alcoholic drinks and caffeinated drinks all act as diuretics, which make you go the the bathroom even more. So if your bladder is already weakening, you will simply overtax your system by eating and drinking things that irritate your bladder.

3.Maintain a Healthy Weight
Being overweight is a sure way to make everything a little harder on your body, so if your bladder is already weak, eating too much and drinking too much is just making your bladder work that much harder. If you are noticing some symptoms of urinary incontinence, this may be the perfect time to start eating a little healthier.

4.Stop Smoking
If you smoke, stop. Of course this is easier said than done, but if you are suffering from urinary incontinence, the effort will be well worth it. While smoking itself is bad for many other systems in your body it does not directly affect your bladder. The cough that comes along with smoking, however, puts undue pressure on your bladder and can contribute to urinary incontinence.

5.Exercise
As you age and your muscles weaken, your pelvic floor muscles are no exception, and just like the rest of your muscles you can keep them in shape by exercising them. Up to three quarters of mild to moderate cases of incontinence can be dramatically improved and even cured by doing pelvic floor muscle exercises. You will have to be patient for the these exercises to pay off, because the results of your hard work will probably not be realized for three to six months. However, all of the hard work is certainly worth it when you regain full bladder control. Regardless of how old you are or how weak your muscles are, you can improve your condition by regularly exercising these muscles to keep them functioning properly.

Bladder weakness in men is more common as you age, and you can find incontinence products that will go a long way towards making managing your problem much easier. At DryForLife we have been helping people find just the right products for their lifestyles, and we are always happy to help. You can order online and have your purchase delivered directly to your front door, quickly, conveniently and discreetly.

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Stress, Urge and Overflow Incontinence Treatment is Available

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Urinary incontinence can be described in thee basic categories depending on what is causing the actual urine leak. For example, stress incontinence is caused by pressure being exerted on the bladder and forcing urine out unintentionally. Urge incontinence exhibits itself as a sudden need to urinate followed by a urine leak, and it is frequently caused by misfiring nerve endings signaling a full bladder. The third type of incontinence is overflow incontinence, and it occurs when the bladder never fully empties so there is always urine leaking. All three types of incontinence can be treated, often with great success. So if you find that you are suffering from any type of incontinence it is a good idea to have your physician diagnose the cause. Then your doctor can help you through the followup care, because whether you are suffering from stress, urge or overflow incontinence treatment is available.

All three types of incontinence can be treated in four basic ways, with behavioral changes, physical therapy, medicine or surgery, and your health care professional is the best person the steer you in the right direction as to which treatment or combination of treatments is appropriate for you.

It is possible to have mixed incontinence as well, where you suffer from two types of incontinence at the same time. For example, you may have the symptoms for stress incontinence along with the symptoms for urge incontinence. In this case your physician will probably choose to begin treatment addressing whichever type of incontinence is the more dominant of the two, and then follow up on the second one.

Unless there is a clear injury or infection, treatment will usually begin with the least invasive solution and become more aggressive as needed. For example, you may start keeping a bladder diary to note when you drink; how much liquid you consume, and when you have accidents. Simply by mapping your behavior, you can frequently make a few small adjustments in your activity to correct your incontinence problem. If behavior changes are not enough, your may move on to doing exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, and again this regimen may be all that is needed to improve your symptoms. Both of these approaches for dealing with urinary incontinence have absolutely no side effects, so you often have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying them first.

When neither of these two approaches solves your problem, there are medicines available to help with your incontinence problem. Depending on your doctor’s suggestion, your medication may do one of several different things. For example, some medication reduces the amount of urine that your body makes. Some medication quiets muscle spasms or calms misfiring nerve endings. Some medication clears up infection, so depending on the likely cause of your incontinence your doctor can prescribe the appropriate medication.

When there is a clear injury where a repair needs to be made, surgery may be the answer to your incontinence problem. Surgery may also be a last stitch effort to solve a stubborn case of incontinence, and again this is a decision that you will want to carefully consider with your medical professional. Both medication and surgery can have side effects, which must be considered before choosing that course of treatment.

So whether you are dealing with stress, urge or overflow incontinence treatment is available for your condition. Get your doctor’s recommendation as to the right course of action to take. To make dealing with your incontinence challenges more manageable, it is important that you use the right incontinence products for your situation. At DryForLife we have been helping people discover the perfect products to help them manage their incontinence conditions for over forty years. With service available by phone or online and quick, discreet delivery DryForLife can help make your situation just a little easier, and we are always happy to help.

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