Urinary Incontinence

Have you experienced leaking urine when you sneeze, cough, and laugh out loud? How about if you are on your way on your bathroom, and even before you reach the toilet bowl, does your urine leak? Or have you felt intense and sudden bladder urges that you cannot control? If you answer yes to all these, then you are experiencing a problem in your bladder that is called urinary incontinence.

Urinary incontinence is a condition where one experiences unwanted leakage or loss of urine. In the United States, this is a very common problem since 15 million Americans are estimated to suffer from this condition. And from this 15 million, more than two thirds are women.

The inability to control urine may not be very alarming to some, but for most patients, this is an extremely distressing problems that can often lead to isolation, depression, and physiological problems. This condition is also a burden for family, caregivers, and the community. Incontinence is one of the major reasons why some families put aging parents into nursing homes.

If you are suffering from urinary incontinence or if a family member does, you must be aware that there are several treatments available, depending on the type of urinary incontinence that you experience. These types include acute or transient urinary incontinence and chronic urinary incontinence. Chronic incontinence includes stress incontinence, urge incontinence, overflow incontinence, and functional incontinence. In order to have successful treatment, the doctor conducts an evaluation in order to determine the type of incontinence that the patient is suffering from and its cause. Some of the treatments available include behavioral therapy, medications, non-surgical devices, and surgery.

Keep in mind that urinary incontinence can be treated and controlled. So if you are suffering from this condition, you should never hide the problem from everyone, especially your doctor. If you are having bladder control problems, it is always best to consult your doctor than to suffer in silence.