About Stress Urinary Incontinence

If you’re frustrated by stress urinary incontinence problems, you are not alone. Millions of people experience urinary incontinence issues and more than 100 million people worldwide experience stress incontinence. But there are effective treatments. We have used our expertise to develop a novel treatment for patients who have found that standard treatments for stress urinary incontinence do not work for them.

Definition

Stress incontinence means you have trouble keeping your urine in when you laugh, cough, sneeze or perform some other activity that increases the pressure in your abdomen. You may suffer small or large leaks when this happens.

Causes

Normally, as your bladder stores urine, your pelvic floor muscles contract to support your bladder and hold urine in without leaking. Stress urinary incontinence occurs when your pelvic floor muscles are weakened or there is damage to the urethral sphincter. One of the most common causes of stress incontinence is damage to the pelvic floor muscles during childbirth. Hysterectomy and menopause may also cause stress incontinence in women.

Although 90% of people who have stress urinary incontinence are women, men can also be affected, particularly after prostate surgery (when the surgery has damaged the sphincter muscle).

Being overweight, genetic weaknesses, nerve and muscle damage as a result of injury or surgery, radiation therapy, diabetes or other chronic conditions are also causes of stress urinary incontinence in both men and women. Even chronic coughing resulting from smoking or lung disease can cause stress incontinence.

Symptoms

The main symptom of stress urinary incontinence is loss of urine when you exert pressure — stress — on your bladder by coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising or lifting something heavy.

Risk Factors

Bladder problems are not a natural part of aging, but as you get older your risk of bladder problems increase. Menopause, pregnancy and childbirth may increase your risk for stress urinary incontinence, as can being overweight, nerve and muscle damage as a result of injury or surgery, radiation therapy, genetic weaknesses, diabetes or other chronic conditions.

Diagnosis

Talk to your doctor about your symptoms and how they are affecting your day-to-day living. Your doctor will make a diagnosis based on your symptoms.

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