Being unable to control your bladder is embarrassing and inconvenient. Visit board-certified urologist Micaela Aleman, MD, at Lone Star Urology in Austin, Texas, if you suffer from urinary incontinence. Dr. Aleman determines what is causing your condition and provides cutting-edge treatments to improve your bladder function and control. Call Lone Star Urology to request a urinary incontinence evaluation or book today using the online form.
Urinary incontinence means being unable to hold your urine long enough to reach a toilet, resulting in leakage. It typically affects older people more, but it isn’t a normal consequence of aging.
Urinary incontinence takes several forms:
Stress incontinence results in urine leakage when you put pressure on your pelvic floor muscles and/or the sphincter that closes your urethra. Lifting, sneezing, laughing, and coughing can all cause urine leaking with stress incontinence. It’s more common in women, mainly because of childbirth.
With urge incontinence, you feel a sudden, urgent need to urinate that you can’t delay. Urge incontinence can be caused by:
Urge incontinence is also a symptom of an enlarged prostate gland in men.
Overflow incontinence occurs when your bladder doesn’t empty properly, resulting in a persistent urine dribble and a weak flow when urinating. Causes include:
Some people have mixed incontinence (a combination of two or more types). People with physical disabilities or conditions like dementia might develop functional incontinence, where being unable to plan toilet visits makes reaching the bathroom in time difficult.
The treatment Dr. Aleman recommends depends on your incontinence’s cause because treating the underlying condition often cures the incontinence.
You might benefit from quitting alcohol and caffeine and improving your general health with other lifestyle changes. Bladder training, physical therapy, and Kegel pelvic floor strengthening exercises can be very helpful.
Some patients improve with clinical electrical stimulation, while muscle relaxant medications are available for an overactive bladder. There are also various collection devices and catheters (connecting tubes) for chronic urinary incontinence. Women might benefit from having bulking agent injections that build up the tissues around the urethra.
Surgical procedures are available for urinary incontinence if other treatments don’t work. Sling procedures support the urethra and are one of the most effective ways to reduce incontinence surgically.
Call Lone Star Urology today or book an appointment online for prompt urinary incontinence diagnosis and treatment.