By Debra McCall
A staggering number of older adults deal with urinary incontinence on some level. In most communities, the percentage of older adults who deal with urinary incontinence is high; over 2 million people experience bladder leakage, according to the National Association for Incontinence. Women are more likely to be affected than men, and they wait approximately 6.5 years before speaking with their doctors about it. Of those who experience incontinence, two-thirds do not seek out treatment or use products to manage their symptoms.
So, what is incontinence? According to the ICS International Continence Society, incontinence is the involuntary loss of bladder or bowel control. Urinary incontinence affects bladder control. There are four types of urinary incontinence: stress, urge, mixed, and functional.
Stress incontinence is caused by intra-abdominal pressure, which results in urine leaking in various amounts. This can happen when someone sneezes, coughs, laughs, or leans forward to stand up.
Urge incontinence happens when a strong urge or a large volume of urine is in the bladder. This type of incontinence usually has triggers, including running water, stepping into the tub, or other bodies of water, such as the ocean or a swimming pool. When a person with urge incontinence returns home from an outing, they may often deal with this type of situation and may experience not being able to get the key in the door quickly enough to get to the restroom.
Mixed incontinence is precisely what it says: a combination of stress and urge. Usually, symptoms of stress incontinence appear first.
Functional incontinence is when someone loses bladder control due to physical or mental limitations, such as when someone has dementia or had surgery of some kind, resulting in the physical inability to get up and go to the restroom.
The good news is that urinary incontinence can be treated. Just speak to a doctor. They may refer you to a urologist, but many doctors will also refer you to pelvic floor muscle-strengthening therapy. Ayers Health and Rehabilitation has a special program called PRIDE UI, where we can work with doctors to help individuals with urinary incontinence.