Women's Health Services
Women's Pelvic Health Center
Incontinence and Bladder Control
Types of incontinence
- Stress incontinence occurs when the patient sneezes, jumps up and down, runs or does any activity that causes stress to the bladder. Physical changes resulting from pregnancy, childbirth and menopause often cause stress incontinence. Childbirth can injure the scaffolding that helps support the bladder. Pelvic floor muscles, the vagina, and ligaments support the bladder. When these structures are weakened, the bladder can move downward, pushing slightly out of the bottom of the pelvis toward the vagina. When this happens it prevents muscles that ordinarily force the urethra shut from squeezing as tightly as they should, resulting in a urine leak.
- Urge incontinence occurs when the patient constantly has the urge to urinate because the bladder is not supporting as much of the urine as it should. A common cause of urge incontinence is inappropriate bladder contractions. Abnormal nerve signals might be the cause of these bladder spasms.
- Combination incontinence occurs when the patient experiences both stress and urge incontinence at the same time.
Though you might be a little embarrassed at first, you should talk to your doctor if you are experiencing incontinence due to urge or stress or a combination of both. If you have urine leakage because you can’t walk or have other mobility problems, you have functional incontinence.
If you have to urinate eight or more times a day, you may have an overactive bladder. Getting up to urinate two or more times each night is another sign of overactive bladder. With an overactive bladder, you feel strong, sudden urges to urinate, and you also may have urge incontinence.
Cytoscopy and Urodynamic testing
A cystoscopy is an examination of the inside of the bladder and urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the outside of the body. The doctor performing the examination uses a cystoscope—a long, thin instrument with an eyepiece on the external end and a tiny lens and a light on the end that is inserted into the bladder. The doctor inserts the cystoscope into the patient’s urethra, and the small lens magnifies the inner lining of the urethra and bladder, allowing the doctor to see inside the hollow bladder. Many cystoscopes have extra channels within the sheath to insert other small instruments that can be used to treat or diagnose urinary problems.
Urodynamics testing assesses how the bladder and urethra are performing their job of storing and releasing urine. Urodynamic tests help your doctor or nurse see how well your bladder and sphincter muscles work and can help explain symptoms such as:
- Incontinence
- Frequent urination
- Sudden, strong urges to urinate
- Painful urination
- Problems emptying your bladder completely
- Recurrent urinary tract infections
These tests may be as simple as urinating behind a curtain while a doctor or nurse listens or more complicated, involving imaging equipment that films urination and pressure monitors that record the pressures of the bladder and urethra.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback uses computer assisted devices to retrain your pelvic floor muscles. This helps the patient gain control over these muscles which reduce or eliminates incontinence.
Incontinence Treatment
The Women’s Pelvic Health Center at Community Memorial Hospital offers surgical and non-surgical treatment options for women with incontinence and bladder control concerns.
Your doctor may recommend:
- Kegel exercises
Kegel exercises are used to strengthen the muscles that surround the openings of the rectum, vagina, and urethra. Developing these muscles can increase continence. The doctor will ask you to squeeze your sphincter muscles as if you were stopping a bowel movement. In the same way that doing sit-ups can help flatten the abdomen, these exercises only work when the right muscles are used, indicating that the "squeeze" is held long enough, and enough repetitions are done.
- Pessary
A pessary is a stiff ring that is inserted into the vagina used to treat incontinence cased by weak pelvic muscles holding the bladder in place and holding urine inside. The pessary presses against the wall of the vagina and nearby urethra and leads to less stress leakage.
Contact Us
For more information about the Women’s Pelvic Health Center, please call Careconnection at 262-251-1001 or 800-246-8332. To make an appointment, call the Women’s Health Center at 262-257-5000.
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