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Female Incontinence
March 12, 2009 |
It’s a topic people rarely speak about, urinary incontinence. And it’s a more common
problem than many think.
Dr. Carolyn Langford is a urological surgeon on
the medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System. She says, “ it’s very embarrassing. Many people have it and are very
embarrassed to speak about it.
But as you’ll find when you are in social groups,
a lot of women will confess to one another that they do have it and want to do something
about it.”
There are two separate types of incontinence. Stress incontinence, where a person
can leak urine through movement because of weak pelvic floor muscles. And there’s
urge incontinence, when there’s a sudden need to use the restroom and urine is leaked
in the process.
“Treatments can be as simple as doing things like kegel exercises, as we all heard
of, which is where you try and basically hold your urinary stream while urinating
and hold it for 10 seconds and do that four times a day,” says Dr. Langford.
As sensitive as this topic is, more than 12
million adults deal with it everyday.
So, opening up to your doctor about the issue could be a positive first step in
the treatment process. While incontinence tends to affect people as they get older,
its not an inevitable part of aging.
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