Female Urinary Incontinence
The definition of urinary incontinence in women is the unintentional loss or leak of the urine. That means the urine gets leaked without the individual’s knowledge. Generally Urinary incontinence occurs more often in women compared to men. This condition is very common among women during their menopause, pregnancy and childbirth time.
This UI issue occurs in women due to bladder muscle weakness or bladder muscle hyperactivity, and nervous system damages. Urinary incontinence in women can be treated by following appropriate medications.
The various types of urinary incontinence that commonly occurs in women are; stress incontinence, urge incontinence, overactive bladder incontinence, functional incontinence, overflow incontinence, mixed incontinence, and transient incontinence.
Stress Incontinence:
If the urine leakage occurs when a person experiences pressure on bladder due to cough, laugh, sneeze, or other movements, it is called stress incontinence.
Physical changes resulting from childbirth, pregnancy, and menopause often cause stress incontinence. This is common in women and in many cases, it can be treated completely.
Urge Incontinence:
If the person has urgent desire to pass the urine and urine gets leaked before the person reaches the lavatory, the condition is called as Urge Incontinence. The general reason for urge incontinence is the inappropriate bladder contraction or abnormal nerve signals.
Urge incontinence can also occur during sleeping, after drinking water and even when the patient touches water by hand or leg. Few other neurological factors (Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, stroke or multiple sclerosis) and injuries during surgery can also harm the urine bladder muscles, which may cause Urge Incontinence.
Overactive Bladder:
Overactive bladder is the condition, in which the nerves send abnormal signals to the brain to act on the urinary bladder at the wrong time. This will come without any warning signals. Especially in women due to overactive bladder, they urinate more than the routine urination.
Functional Incontinence:
It is a condition where the person is aware of the need for urination but due to physical or mental condition they will not be able to reach the restroom on time.
Woman with major neurological diseases (like Alzheimer’s) may not even think well enough to plan to reach a restroom on time. A person in a wheelchair may have a hard time getting to the toilet on time. Functional incontinence may occur due to these mental and physical conditions.
Overflow Incontinence:
Overflow incontinence is the condition in which the bladder doesn’t empty properly causing it to spill over. Fully blocked or partially blocked urethra or a weak bladder muscle can cause this type of incontinence. In a few patients the nerve damage may occur due to diabetes or other diseases. But overflow incontinence issue is a rare disease in women.
Urinary incontinence can be diagnosed as follows: