Life stage, being postpartum or natural ageing shouldn’t be a reason to accept these changes. Knowing that while leaks or urgency can be incredibly common, there are ways to maintain bladder strength, is the first step.
What is urinary incontinence?
Urinary incontinence is the inability to retain urine, or involuntarily leaking urine. There’s no shame attached to this. It can affect people of all ages and genders, and to varying degrees.
It can look like leaking a few drops when laughing or being active, or not completely emptying your bladder because you didn’t make it to the loo in time. Issues can be both temporary or more long-term, but there are ways to manage your bladder health.
Different types of incontinence
Incontinence can be caused by several factors. Different types of urinary incontinence include:
Stress incontinence
Urge incontinence
Mixed type incontinence (having both stress and urge incontinence)
Overflow incontinence
Stress incontinence
Certain movements and daily activities, like coughing, bending or laughing, can generate physical stress and pressure on the abdomen and pelvic floor, which in turn squeeze the bladder. Your pelvic floor usually suppresses the urethra (or more specifically, the urethral sphincter) so it can tighten and hold in your pee, but if your urethra can’t quite cope with the pressure, it may be difficult to control.
Common causes for stress incontinence can include:
Vaginal childbirth, which can sometimes cause a dysfunction of the pelvic floor muscles
Pregnancy can cause excessive amounts of weight on your bladder
Complications during surgery such as a hysterectomy
Urge incontinence
When your bladder strength is compromised, you may feel a sudden, intense urge to pee but are unable to get to the toilet in time.
It works like this: your detrusor muscles surround your bladder, relaxing to allow your bladder to fill up with urine and contracting when you go to the loo to expel the urine.
If the detrusor muscles contract too much and too often, it can affect normal bladder function.It’s not fully understood why your detrusor muscles contract too often, but possible causes can include:
Constipation
Inflammation of the bladder
Some medications
Drinking high levels of diuretics like alcohol or caffeine, and being dehydrated
Overflow incontinence
When you’re unable to fully empty your bladder in one go, it can cause issues.
It can be caused by a blockage affecting your bladder or by the detrusor muscles not fully contracting. In both cases your bladder doesn’t completely empty when you urinate.
Age and bladder confidence
Certain life stages can pose risk factors in terms of normal bladder function feeling disrupted but that doesn’t mean it’s something we need to accept.
Oestrogen plays a key role in the health of your bladder, pelvic floor and urinary tract. During menopause, your body’s oestrogen production slows, which can cause your bladder and pelvic floor to feel weaker.
Key ways to build bladder confidence include a holistic approach to bladder health, such as strength training and nourishing the bladder to help maintain normal function.
