Urinary incontinence means if the involuntary or uncontrollable leakage of urine. And it can happen for different reasons. There are two broad types of urinary incontinence, and one is what we call urgency incontinence. And this is the leakage of urine when you have a sudden urge to pass urine which you can't control. There are other types of incontinence which are called stress urinary incontinence.
And this type of incontinence is more commonly seen in women, and typically happens after childbirth. This is the type of incontinence that happens when you're moving or physically active, or leakage of urine when you're coughing or sneezing or laughing. Urine incontinence is a very common condition. In fact, it affects millions of people worldwide. And lots of studies have shown that it affects anywhere between 10 to 15% of all people.
And it's commonly thought of as a condition of women only. But in fact, it's equally common in men, women, and children. Urine continents can be caused by a number of different things. And it depends really on the type of incontinence that we're talking about. So urgency incontinence, which is the involuntary leakage of urine, when you have a sudden urge to pass urine can often be caused by a number of conditions that affect the bladder. If you have the symptoms of passing urine very frequently or going to pass urine at nighttime or having leakage of urine just because you can't control the urge that you have your bladder checked.
The Communist causes are things like urinary tract infections, diabetes, in men we commonly see in large prostate that can cause these overactive bladder symptoms. And a lot of the time we don't know what causes the incontinence. Sometimes people can have problems with the nerve supply to their bladder, things such as multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson's disease. And I can also cause this kind of overactive bladder symptoms. And very rarely, people can have abnormalities inside the bladder, such as cancers or stones, which can trigger these symptoms.
And so it's a very important factor if you have these symptoms of urgency incontinence, or passing urine very frequently, that you have a full evaluation by a urologist. stress incontinence, which is the leakage of urine, coughing, or any physical movement is most commonly caused by childbirth. And the higher the number of children a woman has had, the higher the risk of the weakness of the pelvic floor muscles. And this can lead to incontinence.
There are other things that can cause stress incontinence, and we know that increasing age, being postmenopausal, and being overweight can also increase your risk of having leakage of urine or any physical movement. In men. Urine incontinence can also result after surgery for any kind of treatment on your prostate, either in large prostate or prostate cancer, and can again lead to symptoms of leakage of urine, coughing, sneezing, or moving. So, if you have any of these symptoms, it's important to have these checked. As there are a lot of underlying potential causes.
And there are lots of treatments, they can really improve your quality of life. overactive bladder can be very successfully treated. There are a number of things that we can try to improve these overactive bladder symptoms, and we often start with the simplest measures. First of all, we would perform the modification of your fluid and lifestyle. And so this would involve a detailed assessment of what type of fluid you drink, how often you drink, and what time you drink throughout the day.
This can enable us to modify your fluid intake to reduce your risks of frequency and urgency of urine. If you have the habit of caffeine and alcohol, that also can increase your risk of overactive bladder symptoms. A significant difference in your symptoms can be achieved by reducing these.
We often advise forming bladder training and pelvic floor muscle exercises. This should be done with a trained medical professional physiotherapist, and can significantly improve symptoms in a high number of patients. This is also especially recommended during pregnancy to reduce your risk of incontinence and it helps to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. overactive bladder symptoms if this hasn't worked, and there are a number of medications that we can try to help relax the bladder.
These methods are often very successful, although some patients are there who do experience side effects. And there are also other treatments we can use to solve the problem. We can inject Botox into your bladder which is a short procedure that helps relax the bladder Improve the symptoms of going very often to pass urine or waking up a lot at nighttime to pass you can also improve incontinence and
Another option is there which is to implant a pacemaker-like device into the skin under your lower back. This technique is called sacred nerve stimulation. Electrical impulses to the nerves that supply the bladder and thereby relax the bladder and improve the symptoms of incontinence of urine are sent byThis device. If this method doesn't work, then there are other surgical procedures that can be performed afterward. And your doctor will talk to you about these depending on how bad your incontinence is and how much it's affecting your quality of life.
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