Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Conservative Urinary Incontinence Treatment

By Olivia Cross


Due to the kind of embarrassment that urinary incontinence causes, most of the people who suffer from it do not seek assistance. In earlier days, it affected mostly the old. However, things have changed and the young also suffer from the same problems. Women patients make up for more than seventy five percent of all those who seek urinary incontinence treatment.

Different interventions are made by doctors depending on the type and severity of your urinary incontinence. The urologist may suggest performing a surgery, prescribe some drugs or teach you some exercises for bladder training and strengthen muscles at the pelvic. There are several conservative treatments available for the problem. However, if the cause of the incontinence is another ailment, you have to be treated for the ailment prior or along with treatment for incontinence. Common conditions that cause incontinence include fistula, which is a tear in the uterus due to prolonged labor during childbirth and enlargement of prostrate gland in men.

Changing few aspects of your lifestyle is the first form of treatment that does not involve medical intervention. Your urologist may suggest that you modify some habits to relieve the symptoms. Such changes could be lowering the intake of water and other fluids in the day so as to bring down the amount of urine that you generate.

You may also be asked to reduce caffeine intake as it increases the amount of urine that would be produced by your body. Caffeine can found in many sports energy drinks, coffee and cola drinks. Obesity can also affect the effectiveness of your bladder; losing weight could help alleviate the problem.

The body uses pelvic floor muscles to control the flow of urine. These muscles are found around the bladder and the urethra and keep the bladder closed until you visit the washroom. If these muscles are damaged or weak, the doctor may start a program to strengthen them. The program involves contracting the muscle for at least eight times at three sessions a day. The specialist keeps track of your improvement and advises accordingly.

If the exercise above does not improve your situation, electrical stimulation may be beneficial. The procedure is done by inserting a small probe in the vagina for women and anus for men. The device measures and lets out small pulses of currents in the muscles to help them contract. The procedure works well with other muscle exercises. Many find it a bit unpleasant but it has good results.

If you are diagnosed with urge incontinence, bladder training may be the very first treatment that you would encounter. This may be offered together with pelvic training above. This training involves techniques to help increase the length of time between when you felt the urge to urinate and the actual time you pass the urine. The training takes about a month and half.

For women with weak pelvic floor muscles and are unable to exercise them, vaginal cones could be of assistance. These are small weights that are inserted into vagina to help in pelvic floor muscle training. You are meant to hold the weights in place with your pelvic muscles. The weights come in different weights but, you start with the lightest to the heaviest. This kind of treatment is very helpful for women that suffer from stress incontinence.




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