How common is incontinence?
If you suffer from incontinence, you’re not alone. While accurate numbers are hard to gather, because people don’t often admit to experiencing incontinence, a survey by the US National Institutes of Health reported that 20 million adult women and six million adult men had experienced urinary incontinence. There are countless others who experience fecal incontinence, also called bowel incontinence.
What are risks for incontinence?
While anyone of any age and gender can experience incontinence, it’s more common in women and older people. Risk factors include:
- Pregnancy
- Childbirth
- Menopause
- Enlarged prostate
- Prostate cancer
What are the different types of incontinence?
All incontinence involves involuntary leakage of urine. Dr. Klope treats all types of incontinence for men and women of all ages. The five main types of incontinence are:
- Stress urinary incontinence (SUI): When your pelvic muscles become weak, urine can leak during physical activity, such as walking or weight lifting, or even from a physical exertion like sneezing or coughing.
- Overactive bladder (OAB): This type of incontinence, also called urge incontinence, happens when your brain tells your bladder that it needs to be emptied urgently, even when it isn’t full. You end up having to visit the bathroom frequently, even at night.
- Mixed incontinence: Mixed incontinence occurs when you have both SUI and OAB and feel the urge to urinate often and experience leakage when laughing, coughing, or exercising.
- Overflow incontinence: With this type of incontinence, your kidneys make more urine than your bladder can hold, so some leaks out. You may also be unable to empty a full bladder.
- Fecal incontinence: With fecal incontinence, you have accidental bowel movements and fecal matter leaks from your anus.
What are the treatment options for incontinence?
Your ideal treatment depends on the type of incontinence you have and its severity. For minor incontinence, diet, bladder retraining, and lifestyle modifications can help. For more problematic incontinence, treatment options include:
- Medications: to calm overactive bladders or reduce urge incontinence
- Medical devices: to help collect and hold urine, such as pessaries for women and catheters for men
- Minimally invasive procedures: such as percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS) and BotoxⓇ
- Surgical procedures: such as an artificial urinary sphincter for men and prolapse surgery for women
- InterStimⓇ Therapy: stimulates nerves with mild electrical pulses to restore bladder and bowel function
If you’re experiencing incontinence, call or book an appointment online.a
