Can pelvic floor exercises (Kegels) treat urge incontinence?
Yes, pelvic floor exercises (Kegels) can strengthen your muscles that support your urinary system. These exercises can improve symptoms.
It’s important to target and use the correct muscles (which is more difficult than you might think). A physical therapist who specializes in pelvic floor disorders can teach you the proper technique. This healthcare provider may use biofeedback to ensure you get the most benefit from the exercises. It can take four to six weeks to see improvements.
While some people need to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, others have spasm or excess tension in the pelvic floor muscles that can make their overactive bladder worse. In this case, you can work with a pelvic floor physical therapist on relaxing and coordinating these muscles.
How else can you treat urge incontinence naturally?
Other steps you can take to ease urge incontinence:
- Ask your healthcare provider for help quitting smoking.
- Drink less caffeinated and carbonated beverages and alcohol. These substances can irritate an overactive bladder.
- Lose weight, if needed.
- Prevent constipation (which worsens incontinence) by eating high-fiber foods and staying hydrated.
- Manage conditions like diabetes.
- Use the restroom at set times (bladder training or timed voiding).
What are urge incontinence treatments?
If pelvic floor exercises and other techniques don’t help, your healthcare provider may recommend one of these treatments:
- Medications or bladder botulin toxin injections (Botox®) to relax your bladder muscle so it can hold more urine.
- Nerve stimulation using a device that sends electrical pulses to your nerves. These impulses act as a bladder pacemaker to relax and regulate overactive bladder squeezes. Your healthcare provider may recommend a surgical procedure to place a sacral nerve stimulation device. Or you may have an in-office procedure for percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS).
- Augmentation cystoplasty surgery to enlarge your bladder using tissue taken from your intestine.
- Urinary diversion surgery to redirect your ureters (tubes that carry urine from your kidneys) to a urine drainage bag outside of your body instead of into your bladder.
What are the complications of urge incontinence?
Urge incontinence can affect your mental health. Some people with severe urge incontinence may be afraid to go out in public. They may worry about being too far from a restroom for fear of an accident. These worries may increase your risk of anxiety and depression.
Because urge incontinence causes you to leak a lot of urine, you may want to wear adult diapers or absorbent urinary pads until treatments take effect. Unfortunately, constant exposure to urine can lead to skin rashes and sores.
FAQs
Urge incontinence.
How do you deal with urge incontinence? ›
You may start by trying to hold off for 10 minutes every time you feel an urge to urinate. The goal is to lengthen the time between trips to the toilet until you're urinating only every 2.5 to 3.5 hours. Double voiding, to help you learn to empty your bladder more completely to avoid overflow incontinence.
What is the most common cause of urge incontinence? ›
Urinary tract infections (UTIs). Pregnancy and childbirth (particularly vagin*l birth). Prior radiation therapy to the pelvis for any reason. Prostate problems like prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia).
Does drinking more water help bladder leakage? ›
In other people with a painful bladder, the production of a more concentrated urine may be irritating to the bladder. In these patients, drinking more water can help incontinence due to decrease in the frequency of voiding and the amount of leakage.
What is the most appropriate treatment for urge incontinence? ›
If you've been diagnosed with urge incontinence, one of the first treatments you may be offered is bladder training. Bladder training may also be combined with pelvic floor muscle training if you have mixed urinary incontinence.
What happens if urge incontinence is left untreated? ›
It's important to talk to your health care provider to assess the underlying cause and start treatment early. What happens if urinary incontinence is left untreated? If left untreated, urinary incontinence can lead to frequent accidents, which can cause skin rashes, recurrent UTIs, and other issues.
Does urge incontinence go away on its own? ›
"Unfortunately, urinary incontinence isn't likely to go away on its own. The good news, however, is that there are things that you can do on your own to improve it, and there are plenty of options for treating it," adds Dr. Lindo.
What is the average age for urge incontinence? ›
UI can occur at any age, but it is more common among women over 50. Urinary incontinence may be a temporary condition that results from an underlying medical condition. It can range from the discomfort of slight losses of urine to severe, frequent wetting.
What are the neurological causes of urge incontinence? ›
The most common conditions are Alzheimer's disease; birth defects of the spinal cord; brain or spinal cord tumors; cerebral palsy; encephalitis; multiple sclerosis; Parkinson's disease; and spinal cord injury.
What vitamins stop urinary incontinence? ›
Conclusions: The findings of the present study showed that in postmenopausal women with UUI or nocturia, weekly use of vitamin D 50,000 IU tablets for 8 weeks can reduce the severity of UI and the frequency of nocturia, and reduce their impact on disruption in daily life.
Doctors at Roswell Park are now offering a new treatment — posterior tibial nerve stimulation — in addition to other options such as pelvic floor rehabilitation, bladder Botox and sacral nerve stimulation. This convenient, innovative and minimally invasive treatment is proving to be more effective than medications.
Why do I feel like I have to pee after I already peed? ›
Vesical tenesmus. The feeling of frequently needing to pee even after you've just peed is caused by constantly activated peeing muscles. These muscles might be responding to residual pee left in your bladder. Or they might be overreacting to irritated nerves in your urinary tract if you have an inflammatory condition.
Is peeing every 2 hours normal? ›
What's normal and how many times is too frequent to urinate? Most people pee about seven to eight times per day, on average. If you feel the need to pee much more than that, or if you're getting up every hour or 30 minutes to go, you might be frequently urinating.
What is the second line treatment for urge incontinence? ›
Together with your doctor you can decide which approach is best for you. Common second-line treatment options for UUI are: Botulinum toxin bladder injection. Nerve stimulation, also known as neuromodulation.
What is the over the counter medicine for urge incontinence? ›
Oxytrol for women is the only drug available over the counter. Overall, these drugs work about the same in treating overactive bladder, and generally, people tolerate all of them well. The main side effect is dry mouth, but anticholinergics also can cause constipation, blurred vision, and increased heartbeat.
Is there an over the counter medication for urge incontinence? ›
Oxybutynin transdermal patches are an OTC medication that can help people with an OAB improve their symptoms. This is only available as an OTC drug for females, while a version for males is prescription only. You typically need to apply oxybutynin transdermal patches twice a week and change it every 3–4 days.
How do you train urge incontinence? ›
If you feel an urge to urinate before the assigned interval, you should use urge suppression techniques — such as relaxation and Kegel exercises. As success is achieved, the interval is lengthened in 15- to 30-minute increments until it is possible to remain comfortable for three or four hours.
How to relax your bladder to urinate? ›
Using the fingertips, a person can gently but firmly tap the skin near the bladder every 30 seconds to encourage urination. Bending forward and rocking side to side while sitting on the toilet puts additional pressure on the bladder, which can encourage urination.
