Types of Incontinence

Excerpt from Definitive Woman Magazine:

Have you ever leaked pee after you sneezed, coughed, or even laughed? Maybe, you prevent this from happening by crossing your legs. You stopped exercising because you would leak pee when you run, jump, or lift something heavy. You wake up to go pee two or three times every night. You drive into your driveway and all of the sudden the urge to pee comes on so fast that you have to hurry and hope you make it without peeing yourself.

These are all different types of bladder incontinence.

There are four main types of bladder incontinence. Stress, urgency, frequency, and mixed incontinence. Stress incontinence occurs when the pressure inside the abdominal cavity exceeds the pressure of the opening of the urethra. Leaking pee with sneezing, coughing, running, and jumping are all examples of these. Frequency incontinence is when you always have the urge to go to the bathroom even if you just went 30 minutes ago. Urgency incontinence is when you get the sudden urge to urinate and if you don’t get to the bathroom ASAP you are going to pee your pants. Mixed incontinence can be a mixture of any of the three previous symptoms together.

There are many reasons someone can have incontinence symptoms. Before we dive into that, let’s talk about how the bladder works in the body. The bladder is a muscle of its own. The kidney’s filter liquid that we consume and the waste from that liquid goes into the bladder. As the bladder fills it likes to keep the brain in the loop. So, when it is around half full it will send the brain a signal saying “hey, i’m about half full down here”. You perceive this as the urge to pee. But, it’s just the bladder giving your brain a heads up even though it’s not actually full. The bladder is able to hold around 2-3 cups of liquid before it is full. This is around 16-24 ounces.

Now, the bladder is one of the most trainable muscles in the body. When you feel that first urge to pee and you choose to go to the bathroom. You start to train your bladder that it needs to go when it’s only half full. It will start to send signals sooner and more often if you continue the habit of going at your first urge. This typically will lead to frequency or urgency incontinence.

Other reasons people experience incontinence could be from imbalanced pelvic floor muscle strength, positioning, or coordination. Poor pressure management strategies, poor hygiene/self-care habits, improper nutrition, poor breathing patterns, chronic stress, decreased mobility of joints, and faulty movement patterns. The pelvic floor is a very complex system that needs the muscles around the pelvis like the hips, glutes (butt), hamstrings, inner thighs, abdominals, and all the way down to your feet to work together to support the muscles of the pelvic floor.

A very common time for women to experience incontinence is after having a baby. About 1 in 4 women will experience incontinence in their lifetime. Think of 3 friends that you have. Out of the four of you, one of you is likely experiencing these symptoms. If it is you, then talk to a pelvic floor therapist about your concerns. There is help to improve whatever symptoms you are experiencing with your pelvic floor.

Here are some basic tips on bladder health:

-The average amount of times you should urinate during the day is 5-8 and is 0-1 at night.

-You should be able to go between 2-4 hours without voiding.

-You should be able to calmly make it to the bathroom after you feel the urge to urinate.

-You shouldn’t have to push your pee out.

-No hovering over the toilet to pee (this goes for public places), just sit down!

-Avoid urinating ‘just in case’ there isn’t a bathroom where you are going, this trains the bladder to urinate more often.

-Urine should be a light yellow color.

If you are thinking to yourself, “I struggle with even just one of these”, then please consult a pelvic floor physical therapist for further support and guidance.

You CAN improve your symptoms and get back to doing what you enjoy without having your bladder be the boss of your life. If you are a do-it-yourself kinda gal than grab my Bladder Restore guide to take back control of your bladder (& your life).