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Unwanted urine loss
Unwanted urine loss has no medical consequences, but it is of course annoying. Some people lose some urine when they sneeze or cough or don’t make it to the toilet when they suddenly need to. Various treatments are possible.
How often does it occur?
Of women older than 55 years, 43 percent sometimes lose weight unintentionally urine. In men this is 17 percent.
What are the complaints?
Anyone who loses urine during physical exertion, straining, sneezing or coughing suffers from stress incontinence. If you involuntarily lose urine just after or during a sudden strong urge to urinate, this is called urge incontinence. This is also known as an overactive bladder. A combination is also possible.
Does it come with getting older?
No, it’s not that the bladder always weakens with age. The same goes for the mechanism that keeps the bladder closed when needed. Urinary leakage is more common in women who have given birth to a child. In men, there is no single clear cause. For example, it could be due to a enlarged prostate (this often goes hand in hand with age), but also due to diuretics, overweight or diabetes.
What if you don’t do anything about it?
This has no medical consequences. But it is unpleasant.
What can the doctor do?
Unwanted urine loss can be treated in women by training the pelvic floor muscles. Your GP can guide you or refer you to a specialized pelvic floor physiotherapist. The exercises strengthen the sphincter of the bladder.
An example of a good exercise: tense the pelvic floor muscles for six seconds (as if you were holding your pee, or better yet, as if you were holding back a breeze) and then relax them for six seconds, ten times in a row. Do that every morning, afternoon and evening. You will often notice improvement after six to eight weeks.
If that does not help enough, a Tension-free Vaginal Tape (TVT) can be surgically placed: a band around the urethra that presses the urethra closed when sneezing, coughing or other pressure. About 85 percent of women with stress incontinence are relieved of the condition after having such a TVT band fitted. Of the women with daily urine loss, 56 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with the result of physiotherapy. Medicines help well in men with moderate complaints.
Sources):
- Plus Magazine
