Living With Incontinence

As always we recommend that you discuss your particular issue with your local doctor so that you are aware of the medical prevention that may be suitable for you.

One thing that you can do is plan for these unplanned and unexpected events. If you are going out for the day you can plan your journey in advance to make sure that a toilet is never too far away. You can use the national pubic toilet map to make sure that you have somewhere nearby to go. Also hotels and shopping centres also have public facilities available so make use of them when you need to.

There are differing types of incontinence with the main two being - Stress Incontinence and Urge Incontinence as outlined below. You should be able to decide which one you have with the symptoms outlined below.

Stress Incontinence

Stress Incontinence as the name suggests occurs when the bladder feels stressed. Common reasons for this would be sneezing or coughing as this increases the amount of pressure placed on the abdominal muscles. This may also occur when exercising or laughing - Basically anything that adds extra pressure to the stomach muscles.

The reason for this is generally due to a weakening in the pelvic floor muscles which occurs during childbirth as the pelvic floor muscles are stretched and weakened. One remedy is to exercise the pelvic floor muscles to regain strength and lessen the frequency of your incontinence or the amount of urine leaked. You may have heard of pelvic floor exercises under the name of kegel exercises.

Urge Incontinence

Urge Incontinence is the state of suddenly needing to go to the bathroom with very little or no warning meaning that you need a bathroom nearby otherwise you may not get there in time and leakage occurs. This condition is also referred to as an over active bladder and stems from having damage to either the bladders nerve system or damage to surrounding and controlling muscles.

It is possible for women to have both Stress and Urge incontinence otherwise known as mixed urinary incontinence.

What Can You Do About Incontinence?

Again seek medical advice. Some other things that you can do depending on your type of incontinence are:

Plan any trips that you are making using the Public Toilets Map as advised at the top of this page

If you know that you have an outing try to restrict or minimise the amount of fluids that you consume within reason - Our bodies do need fluids.

Carry incontinence pads with you in your hand bag or somewhere else convenient so that you have a change if problems occur.

If you have Urge Incontinence take occasional trips to the bathroom just to see if there is anything in your bladder that you can empty

Try to strengthen the muscles with Pelvic Floor Exercises to increase your muscle control

You may also be eligible for the Incontinence Aids Payment scheme which is a government scheme to help with the cost on incontinence aids.