Treatments for Female Stress Urinary Incontinence

Metropolitan Urological Specialists of St. Louis, Washington, and Florissant, Missouri, is focused upon delivering innovative solutions for common women’s medical problems. Their aim is to offer worthwhile, easy-to-understand information so ladies, with their health professionals, can consider their options and make well informed decisions.

What Exactly Is Stress Urinary Incontinence?

Stress Urinary Incontinence, or SUI, is the unexpected, accidental release of urine during normal, everyday activities. You may have SUI if you lose urine when you:
•   Cough, sneeze, or laugh
•   Walk, work out, or lift something
•   Rise from a sitting or lying position

You may also visit the restroom often during the day to prevent accidents. If you are suffering from stress urinary incontinence, this means your urethra (the tube from the bladder through which urine exits your body) doesn't stay closed until it’s time for you to urinate. This issue can occur as a result of:
•   Pregnancy and childbirth
•   Prolonged heavy-lifting or straining
•   Menopause
•   Obesity
•   Cigarette smoking

Typical Signs And Symptoms Of Stress Urinary Incontinence

If you are suffering from urine leakage, take the time to ask yourself:
•   Do you experience urine leakage while laughing, sneezing, coughing, or working out?
•   Do you wear pantiliners or pads to soak up urine leaks?
•   Do you limit or eliminate activities to prevent leakage?
•   When organizing a trip, outing, or event, does the accessibility of washroom facilities impact your choice?

If you said “yes” to even one of these questions, take the next step and speak with a physician or some other healthcare professional like those at Metropolitan Urological Specialists in St. Louis, Washington, and Florissant, MO. Talking about it is the most important thing you can do to start taking control. But for quite a few ladies, it's often the hardest step. It should not be embarrassing, urinary incontinence is a medical problem which can be treated, after all.

Consider asking your doctor the subsequent questions in order to make that discussion a little easier:
•   What kind of urinary incontinence do I have?
•   What remedies are there to help me regain urinary control? Which one is ideal for me?
•   Can you take care of this problem, or can you send me to a doctor specializing in female urinary incontinence?

Treatments

Stress urinary incontinence is treatable at any age. But not all methods work for every person or for every type of incontinence. For SUI, your physician may encourage one or more of the following:
1.   Behavioral/Muscle Therapy: Therapy often starts off with Kegel exercises to help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Depending on the severity of your condition, however, Kegels may not give adequate relief.
2.   Biofeedback: In this method, the patient exercises the pelvic floor muscles while attached to an electric sensing device. The device provides “feedback” to help you understand how to better control these muscles. With time, biofeedback can help you utilize your pelvic muscles to reduce sudden urges to urinate and lessen some kinds of pelvic pain.
3.   Electrical stimulation: This method helps pelvic floor exercises by separating the muscle groups involved.
4.   Medication: Some forms of urinary incontinence, such as urge incontinence, can be treated with medications; however there is currently no medication approved to treat SUI in the United States.

This article is brought to you by Metropolitan Urological Specialists. If you've any further questions about stress urinary incontinence for women or any other issues that they provide treatment for, come by one of their practices in St. Louis, Washington, or Florissant, Missouri and make an appointment.