When urine is lost unintentionally, the condition is called stress incontinence. When physical activity or movement, such as laughing, sneezing, coughing, running, or heavy lifting, exerts pressure (stress) on your bladder, it can lead to stress incontinence. Psychological stress is unrelated to stress incontinence. KD Blossom has a team of gynecologists in Ahmedabad equipped with years of training and experience in dealing with stress incontinence.

Overactive bladder (OAB) and urgency incontinence are not the same as stress incontinence. The urge to urinate before you can reach the restroom is brought on by the bladder muscle contracting in cases of urgency incontinence, also known as OAB. Women have stress incontinence far more frequently than males do.

You can limit your work and social life, feel ashamed, or isolate yourself if you have stress incontinence. You might also abstain from recreational and physical pursuits. You should be able to control your stress incontinence and enhance your general health with treatment.

What Are The Symptoms?

Urine leakage may occur if you have stress incontinence when you:

• Sneeze or cough
• Laugh
• Lean forward
• Heave something heavy up.
• Work out
• Engage in sexual activity

Possibly you won’t always leak urine after doing one of these activities. However, involuntary urine loss can occur more frequently from any activity that puts pressure on the bladder, especially when the bladder is full.

What Are The Causes?

A weakening of the muscles and tissues supporting the urethra (pelvic floor muscles) and the muscles controlling the release of urine (urinary sphincter) results in stress incontinence.

As the bladder fills with pee, it swells. The urethra, a small tube that drains urine from your body, includes muscles that resemble valves and are generally closed when your bladder swells to contain leaks until you go to the bathroom. However, sneezing, bending over, lifting, or laughing hard are all actions that strain the abdominal and pelvic muscles, which can weaken over time and cause urine to leak from the bladder.

The following factors may cause your urine sphincter and pelvic floor muscles to weaken:

• Childbirth: Women’s pelvic floor muscles or the sphincter may become weaker as a result of tissue or nerve injury sustained during childbirth. This injury can cause stress incontinence, which can start shortly after delivery or develop years later.
• Prostate Surgery: The most frequent cause of stress incontinence in men is the surgical excision of the prostate gland (prostatectomy) to cure prostate cancer. The sphincter that surrounds the urethra and is located right beneath the prostate gland may become weaker as a result of this surgery.

The Contributing Factors

Stress incontinence may also be exacerbated by the following factors:

• Conditions that result in persistent coughing.
• Being overweight.
• Smoking might make coughing more often.
• high-impact exercises for a long time, such as sprinting and leaping.

The Risk Factors

The following variables raise the possibility of developing stress incontinence:

• Age: Physical changes brought on by aging, such as weakening of the muscles, may make stress incontinence more likely. It can occur at any age.
• Type Of Childbirth Delivery: Urinary incontinence is more common in women who give birth to babies vaginally than in those who deliver babies via cesarean section. Stress incontinence may be more common in women who have undergone forceps delivery to deliver a healthy baby faster. It doesn’t seem that women who had vacuum-assisted deliveries are more susceptible to stress incontinence.
• Body Weight: Obese or overweight people are more likely to develop stress incontinence. The organs in the abdomen and pelvis are under more pressure when one is overweight.
• Previous Pelvic Surgery: Weakness in the muscles that support the bladder and urethra can result from surgery for prostate cancer in men or after a hysterectomy in women. This can lead to stress incontinence.

Complications

Among the possible complications of stress incontinence are:

• Emotional Distress: Should you encounter stress incontinence during your regular activities, the ailment may cause you to feel ashamed and upset. Your relationships, career, social life, and even your sexual life may all be negatively impacted. Some people find it embarrassing to admit they require incontinence pants or pads.
• Mixed Urinary Incontinence: A common condition known as mixed incontinence is the combination of stress and urgency incontinence, which is the unintended leak of pee brought on by an overactive bladder that causes an urgent desire to urinate.
• Skin Or Irritation: Urine on skin all the time can cause irritation, soreness, and even skin breakdown. If you don’t use incontinence pads or moisture barriers, this is what happens with severe incontinence.

Conclusion

If your symptoms bother you or get in the way of your regular activities, such as your job, hobbies, or social life, speak with a lady gynecologist at KD Blossom. It takes your concerns into account.