Preventing Incontinence

What can I do now to prevent having bladder and urination problems?

Pelvic floor exercises are the best way to maintain pelvic floor strength. We can't really beat aging, so, actually, there isn't too much we can do. Stress incontinence risk factors can be avoided, such as preventing obesity, not smoking. We don't really recommend about not having vaginal deliveries or not having babies. So I think I would tell patients that if they develop stress incontinence after delivery, we have a lot of great treatments out there.

Can medications cause incontinence?

Yes, medications can definitely cause incontinence. Specifically diuretics which are often given to treat hypertension can cause more urination, so therefore cause more leakage. Often we can tailor diuretic therapy, so that if a patients getting up a lot at night we move their diuretic to the morning. So we can work around certain medications or a patient can be switched from a diuretic to another medication to treat their high blood pressure.

Could my lifestyle cause incontinence?

Lifestyle can contribute to incontinence, specifically by what a patient is drinking. High volumes of caffeinated beverages, specifically coffee, high volumes of water, high volumes of alcohol or beer, any of those can definitely cause more leakage.

If I start noticing problems with incontinence, can I reverse them?

It depends on what the cause of the incontinence is. If it is a reversible cause of incontinence, such as high fluid intake or medications, then often these can be reversed. Most of the time it's not reversible.

Does everyone get incontinent when they get old?

Incontinence definitely increases with age. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that among adults living in the community aged 60 and over, 38% of women had some type of leakage, and 17% of men have some type of leakage. When I say some type of leakage I mean stress or urinary leakage. The frequency of incontinence also increases with age, meaning number of episodes increase.