Urinary Incontinence: Causes, Types, and Treatment in NYC

Urinary incontinence is a common yet often misunderstood condition that affects millions of people worldwide. In fact, it is common for women to report urinary leakage unexpectedly. Urinary leakage can happen for several different reasons. For instances, it can occur from either a very weak pelvic floor or a very tight pelvic floor.

Continue reading to learn more about the causes, types, and available treatment options for urinary incontinence.

What is Urinary Incontinence?

Urinary incontinence refers to the involuntary leakage of urine. It can range from occasional leaks to a complete loss of bladder control. This condition can significantly impact an individual's quality of life and overall well-being.

Types of Incontinence:

There are several types of urinary incontinence, including:

1. Stress Incontinence: This is urinary leakage that occurs due to pressure on your bladder. This can occur during activities that increase your abdominal pressure, such as coughing, sneezing, running, or exercising.

2. Urge Incontinence: With this type of incontinence, you may experience a sudden and intense urge to urinate followed by involuntary leakage.

3. Overflow Incontinence: This type of incontinence is due to an inability to completely empty your bladder, leading to frequent or constant dribbling of urine.

4. Mixed incontinence. Some people experience multiple types of incontinence, most commonly stress and urge incontinence.

Causes of Urinary Incontinence:

Your pelvic floor is a webbing of muscles in the base of your pelvis from one side to the other. It consists of a lot of muscles that are layered next to each other, creating a basket weave.

It functions to support your core, aids in urination, digestion, childbirth and sexual pleasure. Men also have a pelvic floor that functions similarly, except for childbirth. These muscles also stabilize our pelvis, as they are activated with every step that we take.

Weak Pelvic Floor Muscles: A weak pelvic floor can occur most frequently after childbirth. Due to the stress of pregnancy and/or delivery, your pelvic floor can become strained due to excess pressure or tearing during delivery. This can lead to involuntary urinating, especially with sneezing, coughing, and exercises such as running and jumping.

Hormonal Changes: Menopause or hormonal imbalances can contribute to urinary incontinence in women. During menopause, estrogen levels decrease, causing vaginal tissues to weaken and lose coordination.

Tight Pelvic Floor Muscles: Coincidently a tight pelvic floor could also cause urinary leakage. When the muscles are tight, they have trouble contracting and relaxing properly. These tight muscles are very interconnected and can affect the urethra. These symptoms can occur with sneezing, coughing, or exercise. Additionally, these symptoms can also occur randomly without cause or could occur with intercourse. This is where traditional Kegel exercises would NOT be indicated. You would ideally need to stretch and relax these muscles before you would start exercises to properly coordinate these muscles.

Treatment Options for Urinary Incontinence:

If you suffer from urinary leakage, please don't hesitate to see a pelvic floor physical therapist here at FemFirstHealth. Pelvic floor physical therapy can effective treat urinary incontinence.

A pelvic floor physical therapist will give you a customized treatment plan to help you effectively treat your incontinence. Your treatment plan may include bladder re-training, pelvic floor muscle exercises, biofeedback, education on bladder irritants, and much more!

A pelvic floor therapist will assess your strength, give your feedback, enhance your awareness, and monitor your progress. They can let you know if you are contracting your muscles properly and teach you how to properly.

So many individuals suffer with urinary leakage because they don’t think they can receive help for it; or are too nervous to share this private information with others. Knowledge is power. There are many resources out there if you search for it and communicating these needs to a health care professional is key. Remember, you're not alone, and there are solutions available to help improve your urinary leakage and your quality of life.