Do you cross your legs before you sneeze?
Do you avoid jumping jacks?
What about jumping on a trampoline?
There are two basic types of accidental urine leakage: The first type is called stress incontinence. If you leak urine when you cough, sneeze, laugh, jump, run or lift something heavy you are not alone. In fact, 1 in 3 women who have given birth suffer from this condition. (Side note, men who have had their prostate removed also suffer from stress incontinence, but I will save that topic for another day).
The second type of leakage is known as urge incontinence. This is when you get an urgent urge to urinate, rush to the bathroom, and maybe you don’t make it on time. I will also talk about how to address this at another time!
Why does stress incontinence happen?
Essentially, if there is a strong downward pressure (such as increased intra-abdominal pressure from a cough), and that downward pressure is stronger than the closure pressure provided by your pelvic floor muscles, then the stronger force wins and a leak will occur. It’s not that your pelvic floor isn’t there anymore, it just means that it wasn’t strong enough to resist that force and was overpowered in that moment. That lack of closure pressure is usually due to muscle weakness and could be due to a number of things, but the most common culprits are childbirth, a chronic cough, obesity, pelvic floor surgery and age.
Okay, so now what?
Here’s the thing…stress incontinence is very fixable. Not in the “okay I feel more confident but I’m going to wear a pantyliner just in case” kind of fixable, but the “I’m going to have a contest with my kids to see who can do a better star jump” kind of fixable, the “oh my goodness I’ve been walking around all day and moving furniture but my underwear is still completely dry” kind of fixable, and the “I’m going to skip the aisle with all of the absorbent products because I don’t need them anymore” kind of fixable. You do not have to accept the leaking as your new level of normal. You do not have to live with this for the rest of your life. You can do something about this! You can have confidence and control over your bladder again.
I want that! How do I get that?
I’m not going to lie, there is a little bit of homework involved. The strength, endurance, and skill level of your pelvic floor need to improve. That’s where pelvic floor physiotherapy comes in. A pelvic floor therapist can make sure you are contracting the correct muscles in the correct way and give you a treatment plan to suit your current skill level and your specific situation. If this is something you are interested in learning more about, please feel free to contact me or book an appointment and I would be thrilled to go over it all with you one on one!