A weak pelvic floor can lead to a wide range of issues, including incontinence, both urinary and fecal, pelvic floor prolapses, pelvic pain and many more issues.

How can urinary incontinence be addressed?

Doctors, psychiatrists, specialists, physiotherapists all have an important part to play in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence. These health Professionals can run through a variety of tests to determine the cause of your urinary incontinence, what might be making it worse and what you could do to make things better.  Doctors & psychiatrists can treat urinary incontinence with medications, physiotherapists such as the specialised women’s health physios at Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy can treat incontinence with pelvic floor exercises.

Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence is common in can an occur when you laugh cough sneeze or exercise or it can also be when you're at unable to fully empty your bladder full stop often you're only incontinence can be cured sometimes it has to be managed sometimes you have to have a multidisciplinary approach with doctors surgeons physios all involved to help you reach your best outcome.

What are the types of urinary incontinence

 there are five main types of incontinence

• Stress
• Overflow
• Urge
• Retention
• Nocturia
• Mixed

Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence occurs when an increase in the abdominal pressure places stress on the bladder and can cause small amounts of urine to escape. Often activities such as sneezing, running, lifting or laughing can cause these to occur. Often occurring in women they can also occur in a man who has had prostate surgery as well. Stress incontinence can be caused by pregnancy, childbirth and menopause.  In cases of childbirth the pelvic floor muscles which support the bladder can become stretched and weakened which results in incontinence. During menopause with changes to the estrogen levels which helps to maintain the  thickness of the urethral lining, these changes can lead to incontinence.

Overflow incontinence

Overflow incontinence is a type of urinary and continents which occurs when the bladder becomes too full and overflows causing leakage. This is often caused by weak bladder muscles which prevent the bladder from emptying properly.

Urge incontinence

Urge incontinence is often known as overactive bladder. It's a type of incontinence which  is characterized by a sudden intense urge to urinate followed by an involuntary loss of urine.  This can occur even when the bladder isn't completely full and seemingly moments earlier there was no need to urinate. 

Urinary Retention

Urinary retention occurs when you're unable to empty your bladder properly. When this is a chronic issue you may leak small amounts of urine when the pressure is increased on the bladder.

Signs of urinary retention

• A weak urine stream
• Needing to strain to pass urine
• A feeling of a bladder that is not empty after just going to the toilet
• Passing urine while asleep
• Frequent UTIs

Causes of urinary retention

• Prolapsed pelvic organs can block their urethra
• Damage the nerves that control the urethral sphincter and pelvic floor muscles
• Neurological conditions such as Parkinson stroke MS and diabetes
• Medications
• A urethra that is blocked particularly when a full bladder puts pressure on the urethra due to a poorly positioned bladder.

Nocturia incontinence

Nocturia incontinence, refers to the involuntary loss of urine during the night, often associated with frequent nighttime urination (nocturia). In nocturia, a person can wake up multiple times during the night to urinate. Nocturia incontinence refers to the inability to control the bladder at night time which leads to bed wetting.

Mixed incontinence

Mixed incontinence is a combination of the above factors which can amplify the effects of the conditions. An example of mixed incontinence would be when someone suffers from both urge incontinence and stress incontinence. They may suddenly develop the urge to have to go to the bathroom and in the rush to get there quickly they place added pressure on their bladder which can lead to urine escaping.

Effects of urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence can have a massive effect on the lives of women affected by it. It can lead to social isolation as the embarrassment of it can lead to social withdrawal. There are financial costs associated with incontinence from increased usage of pads as well as other medical costs. 

Other treatment options

There has been shown to be some benefits from acupuncture on urinary incontinence. By using needles the acupuncturist can modulate the nervous system and help reduce involuntary bladder contractions. It can improve the blood flow to the bladder & promote relaxation on the muscles surrounding the bladder. An acupuncturist such as those at Wilston Physiotherapy & Massage can be a natural way to help with incontinence as well as other aches and pains.