Do you know the location of all the public bathrooms in State College? Do you stop and squeeze your legs together before sneezing? Are you afraid to really laugh because you might leak? If so, you are not alone.
Bladder leakage (urinary incontinence) affects four out of five women at some point in their life and can be a problem for men as well. Fortunately, treatment is available. Physical therapy treatment of incontinence has an 80 percent success rate.
The most common type of bladder leakage is stress urinary incontinence. This leakage occurs when you cough, laugh, sneeze, even run or jump. The contraction of the abdominal muscles during these activities puts pressure against the bladder, overpowering the pelvic floor muscles, causing some urine to leak out.
A women’s health physical therapist can teach you how to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and use them in combination with the abdominal muscles, reducing or eliminating the leakage.
An overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom that triggers a leak (often full bladder loss) is urge incontinence. Changes in urination habits after the onset of stress incontinence often leads to urge incontinence, although it can occur independently. Some individuals with urge incontinence have muscle strength, however they are unable to control the urge and leak on the way to the bathroom with little warning.
Physical therapy treatment for urge incontinence also is highly successful through behavioral modification techniques and reeducation of the pelvic floor muscles.
A side effect of incontinence is that individuals often become more sedentary in order to avoid leaking or avoid social situations. This can have negative effects on overall health and fitness, physically and emotionally.
Most patients require only five to six sessions of physical therapy for bladder leakage and will notice improvement within the first two weeks.
Alicia Hinnergardt is a McKenzie-certified spine specialist and facility director at Phoenix Rehabilitation and Health Services in State College. She can be reached at ahinnergardt@phoenixrehabilitation.com.
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