Treatment for Stress Urinary Incontinence: What Are The Options?

It’s an embarrassing problem that few women want to talk about. Stress urinary incontinence affects almost a third of all women – most commonly after the birth of their first child. With stress urinary incontinence, a woman experiences leakage of a small amount of urine when she laughs, coughs, or sneezes – basically anything that increases intra-abdominal pressure. It can happen anywhere, anytime – even in public. Exercising in public can even become a chore since urine leakage worsens with exertion. Abdominal exercises can be particularly problematic since they put additional pressure on the pelvic floor. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with stress urinary incontinence and make this condition a little more manageable.

What Causes It in the First Place?

Women with stress urinary incontinence usually have weakness in the muscles that form the floor of the pelvis. When these muscles are weak, they allow the urethra, the tube that expels urine, to fall downward – causing urine to leak out. Two factors that cause the pelvic floor to weaken in women with stress urinary incontinence are childbirth and obesity. Women who have given birth are at a much higher risk of stress urinary incontinence compared to women who have no children; and the more children a woman has had the more likely she is to develop this condition. Obesity also puts excess pressure on the pelvic floor causing it to weaken.

How is It Diagnosed?

Women with stress urinary incontinence usually have characteristic symptoms that make the diagnosis easy to make. If the diagnosis is questionable, a doctor may perform a bladder stress test. This involves injecting fluid into the bladder. The woman is then asked to cough and leakage of urine is checked for. It’s also important to have urinalysis run to rule out a urinary tract infection which could be contributing to the symptoms. A pelvic should also be performed to check for enlargement of the uterus or ovaries that could be placing additional pressure on the pelvic floor.

Simple Lifestyle Changes

Simple lifestyle changes often have a big impact on symptoms of stress urinary incontinence. If obesity is part of the problem, weight loss can help. One study showed that women who lost three pounds of weight reduced their frequency of leakage by 28%. The results were even more dramatic when more weight was lost. Completely eliminating caffeine also improves symptoms for some women. Women can also learn to train themselves to urinate every hour to keep their bladders as empty as possible. Constipation also contributes to problems with stress urinary incontinence, so a high fiber diet is a must.

Other Treatments

Another effective way to deal with stress urinary incontinence is to strengthen the muscles that make up the pelvic floor. This is done by performing Kegel exercises. These consist of contracting the muscles around the vagina and holding them in a contracted state for ten seconds several times a day. Instructions illustrating how to do this can be found on the internet. This method takes time to yield results – usually four to six months. In severe cases of stress urinary incontinence, prescription medications can be used, but they have significant side effects and should only be taken after Kegel exercises have failed.

A New Treatment

Recently, a new treatment for stress urinary incontinence was studied and found to be effective. It involves injecting autologous muscle cells into the bladder. Women who received this treatment reported significantly less stress leakage and an improved quality of life with minimal side effects. This procedure will, hopefully, become more widely available in the future.