Solutions for Female Stress Urinary Incontinence

Metropolitan Urological Specialists of Saint Louis, Missouri, with offices in Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, Florissant, and Washington, MO is focused on providing advanced solutions for common women’s health issues. Their objective is to give helpful, easy-to-understand facts so women, with their physicians, can weigh their options and make well-informed decisions.

What Is Stress Urinary Incontinence?

Stress Urinary Incontinence, or SUI, is the sudden, unintentional release of urine during normal, day to day activities. SUI is a different condition than Overactive Bladder (OAB), a problem characterized by urgency, frequency, getting up at night with or without having bladder seepage.  Many women have both varieties of incontinence.  You might have SUI should you lose urine when you:

• Cough, sneeze, or laugh
• Walk, exercise, or lift something
• Rise from a sitting or lying position

You may even go to the bathroom frequently throughout the day in order to prevent accidents. If you suffer from stress urinary incontinence, this means your urethra (the tube from the bladder by which urine leaves your body) does not remain closed until it’s time for you to urinate. This condition can occur as a result of:

• Pregnancy and childbearing
• Prolonged heavy-lifting or straining
• Menopause
• Obesity
• Cigarette smoking

Typical Signs and Symptoms Of Stress Urinary Incontinence

If you're experiencing urine leakage, take the time to ask yourself:

• Do you suffer from urine leakage while laughing, sneezing, coughing, or working out?
• Do you wear panti-liners or pads to soak up urine leakage?
• Do you limit or eliminate activities to avoid leakage?
• When planning a trip, outing, or event, does the availableness of bathroom facilities impact your final decision?

If you responded “yes” to even one of these basic questions, take the next move and talk with a physician or some other healthcare professional such as those at Metropolitan Urological Specialists in St. Louis, MO. Discussing the issue is the most important thing you can do to begin taking charge of your bladder symptoms. Unfortunately, for plenty of women, it is often the toughest step. It shouldn't be shameful -- urinary incontinence is a medical issue which is treatable.

Think about asking your doctor the subsequent inquiries to make that discussion a bit easier:

• What kind of urinary incontinence do I have?
• What medications are there to help me to get back urinary control? What type is appropriate for me?
• Can you manage this issue, or are you able to refer me to a doctor specializing in female urinary incontinence?

Treatments

Stress urinary incontinence is treatable at every age. But not all the methods work for every person or even for all kinds of incontinence. For SUI, a physician may encourage one or more of the following:
Behavioral/Muscle Therapy: Therapy often starts off with Kegel exercises to help you develop the pelvic floor muscles. Based on the seriousness of your condition, however, Kegels may not give suitable relief.

Biofeedback: In this method, the patient exercises the pelvic floor muscles while connected to an electrical detection device. The device gives “feedback” to help you to learn how to better control these muscle groups. Over time, biofeedback can help you utilize your pelvic muscles to diminish unforeseen impulses to urinate and minimize some kinds of pelvic pain.

Electrical stimulation: This method helps pelvic floor exercises by isolating the muscles involved.

Medication: Some patients have both SUI and OAB.  OAB symptoms are treatable with medications; but today there are not any drugs approved to help remedy SUI in the United States.

Surgery: An outpatient procedure, known as Transvaginal Tape, can be carried out to place a small piece of mesh beneath the tube you urinate through (urethra) through the vagina.

This information is presented by Metropolitan Urological Specialists. Should you have any more queries about stress urinary incontinence for women or any other urological issues, make an appointment at one of our practices' locations in Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, Florissant, or Washington, Missouri.

Information About Your Bladder Control Problems

Bladder control issues can encompass many symptoms, like urinary leakage (incontinence), inability to empty your bladder entirely (retention), or just the bothersome urgency and frequency to use the restroom.  If you have incontinence or any of these other aggravating symptoms, you're not alone. Urinary control problems affect countless Americans, which makes it as common as many different prominent diseases including asthma, diabetes, and osteoporosis. It isn't strictly a female issue, nor is it a normal part of the aging process.

Urinary control issues can be disastrous or at the very least lessen one’s quality of life in Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, Florissant, or Washington, Missouri. You may leak large or small volumes of urine, use the washroom quite often, or be unable to completely empty your bladder. These conditions might affect your life daily and can make straight forward day to day activities harder.  You may feel confined by a fear of leaking accidents, the need to be near the bathroom at all times, and a general preoccupation with your bladder.  These types of symptoms might affect one’s social life -- you might need to scale back on your hobbies, stop working, bypass going to the movies, eating out, or meeting with family and friends.

How Come I Have Urinary Control Issues?

Nerves carry info back-and-forth from the brain. Certain nerves manage the bladder and muscle tissues that relate to urination. When the communication system between these nerves and your brain isn't functioning properly, an individual might have bladder problems like urinary retention and over active bladder symptoms, such as urgency, frequency, nocturia (getting out of bed at night) with or without urinary incontinence.

Different Kinds Of Urinary Control Difficulties

With urge urinary incontinence, you may:

• Lose urine the instant you feel a powerful need to go to the washroom
• Leak urine when you cannot go to the restroom quickly enough
• Leak urine whenever you consume even a tiny amount of liquid, or when you hear or touch running liquid

With urgency-frequency, you may:

• Have frequent, aggravating, uncontrollable urges to urinate
• Visit the restroom more often than normal (over seven times a day)
• Often feel your bladder is not totally empty even after using the bathroom

With urgency-retention, you may:

• Spend a long time at the toilet but produce only a weak, dribbling stream of urine
• Leak urine (also called overflow incontinence)
• Not have a sensation whenever your bladder is full
• Have to use a catheter to empty your bladder

If you or someone you know is suffering from any of these annoying urinary symptoms, call Metropolitan Urological Specialists in St. Louis, Missouri and make an appointment with one of their physicians to start taking control of your life again.

Interstim Therapy for Bladder and Bowel Incontinence

Interstim Therapy was FDA approved in 1997 for the treatment of urinary urge, retention, and urgency/frequency.  It was authorized in 2011 for bowel accidents (fecal incontinence).

What exactly are annoying bladder symptoms?

• Leakage of small or large amounts of urine
• Urinating frequently
• Urinating urgently
• Getting up during the night to urinate
• Incapacity to fully empty the bladder, or may be not able to urinate at all (retention)

What exactly are annoying bowel symptoms?

• Fecal leakage
• Fecal smearing
• Diarrhea
• Constipation

How prevalent are urinary control issues?

• More than 33 million individuals (1 in 6 adults) suffer from urinary control problems within the United States alone.
• These issues can impact men and women.
• It may affect people of all ages; it is not just a regular part of the aging process.

Just how commonplace are bowel control issues?

Over 18 million people or 8.3% of adults are afflicted by symptoms of bowel control. Really, this affliction is most likely more prevalent than reported due to the embarrassing nature of the condition.

Exactly what are the factors that cause irritating bladder and bowel symptoms?

There might be multiple causes; like injury, side effects from specific medications, neurologic diseases, infection, bearing offspring, pelvic pain, and others.

How could I know whether Interstim Therapy is correct for me?

You will want to see a doctor with a special interest, training, and knowledge about Interstim Therapy.  Dr. Naughton, one of Metropolitan Urological Specialists’ physicians and voted Best Doctor in St. Louis for 10 consecutive years since 2007, concentrates on the management of bothersome bladder and bowel symptoms and has one of the best experiences with Interstim Therapy in Missouri.

Interstim Therapy has two phases:

1. Test trial period to find out if the therapy is suited to you—Percutaneous Nerve Evaluation (PNE)
2. Permanent Interstim Implant

Before placement of the permanent implant, your physician may suggest a Percutaneous Nerve Evaluation (PNE). PNE is an easy office test which allows you a chance to test two temporary leads (or wires) within the pelvic nerves.  Using local anesthesia in an office setting, two temporary leads are put on either side of the pelvic nerves.  The leads are taped to the rear and linked to an external battery the size of a beeper.  The patient will get the chance to test both leads over the next 3-5 days to find out if there are any changes to the bladder or bowel symptoms.  We consider a 50 percent improvement in symptoms a positive test, which makes the individual a candidate for placement of the permanent device.

What to know about the Percutaneous Nerve Evaluation (PNE) Procedure

• Please arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled meeting time.
• You might drive yourself to the procedure; but, it is substantially better to have somebody drive you to and from the procedure.
• This procedure is completed within the office under local anesthesia within 10-15 minutes.
• A small snack or meal is okay 2 hours before the procedure.
• Give up aspirin and ibupfren products (Motrin, Alleve, an such like) for at least 5 days before your procedure.
• Let our scheduler know whether you are taking blood thinners, including Coumadin (warfarin), Xaralto, and so forth.
• No baths or showers are permitted while in the testing period.  You may take sponge baths and clean your hair in the sink.
• Steer clear of heavy lifting or too much bending throughout the trial.

If you are not able to tolerate the PNE, there is an option to perform the trial phase in the operating room with anesthesia.  This is called a “Stage 1” procedure. You and the doctor will determine if a Stage 1 procedure is appropriate for you.

What you should expect on the day of the PNE procedure

• You will meet a medical assistant and representative(s) from Medtronic; the product company.
• You will be directed to lay on your stomach.  The medical assistant will wash off your back and buttocks.
• Your physician will perform the procedure with the assistance of the Medtronic agent.
• The Medtronic agent and the medical assistant will fasten the leads to your back and wipe off the cleaning solution on your back and buttocks before you get dressed.
• Following the treatment, you will talk with the Medtronic representative to check out voiding and bowel diary guidelines and set up contact plans with the agent to go over changes in your urinary and bowel function during the test period.
• You will make a scheduled appointment to see the physician in three to five days in the office before leaving to take off the leads and talk about the results of your trial.

What you want to know about the permanent Interstim implant procedure

Should you experience a greater than 50% improvement in urinary and/or bowel symptoms with your PNE, then you're a candidate for the full Interstim implant device.  This is an outpatient procedure under sedation lasting 15-20 minutes.  The battery and permanent lead is implanted all underneath the skin.  You won't be capable of getting a body MRI after the implant.  A brain MRI however is safe with the Interstim implant.  The battery will last 5-12 years following placement.

If you have any questions concerning the Interstim therapy or anything different associated with bladder issues, schedule an appointment with one of our experienced offices within the St. Louis area, such as Washington, Florissant, and Creve Coeur, MO.