Don't let urinary incontinence take control of your life

It has been reported that 25 million Americans suffer from urinary incontinence (UI). Of those, up to 80% of all sufferers are women. The Idaho Pain Clinic Occupational Therapy department is looking to make female urinary incontinence a thing of the past.

If you are reading this and you know someone, or you yourself has experienced urinary incontinence we urge you to consider treatment options. Options which may include evaluation and treatment by our Occupational Therapist who has specialized training treating female urinary incontinence.

In an effort to educate the community regarding female urinary incontinence the clinic’s Occupational Therapist Liz Morris will be offering a free educational seminar at Winter Ridge on August 16th at 6pm. For those interested but unable to attend there will be online access to the seminar through the Idaho Pain Clinic’s facebook page.

So what is urinary incontinence and could you or a loved one have it? There are several forms of incontinence. Common ones will be discussed below, however this is only an introduction to what will be presented in the free course on August 16th.

One form of UI is stress incontinence. This is when laughing, sneezing, or other movements cause you to leak urine as a result of pressure placed on the bladder during these activities. This can happen if the structures surrounding your bladder weaken, allowing your bladder to move downward and applying abnormal pressures that limit our body from working the way it should in order to stop bladder leakage.

Another form of incontinence is urge. This occurs when you lose urine without any reason (such as coughing, laughing, activity etc). You lose control of your bladder after suddenly feeling the need to urinate. A common report is what is called ‘key in door’, where as soon as you get to the front door of your home you have a sudden urge to go. A common cause is inappropriate bladder contractions, but it could be as a result of abnormal nerve signals as well. People with urge incontinence may find themselves using the bathroom at night, after drinking only small amounts of liquids, when they touch water or hear water running etc. Some other causes can be medications as well as stress levels.

Overactive bladder occurs from abnormal nerve signals being sent to the bladder at the wrong time. Many women with overactive bladder find they are voiding more than seven times in a day. Some specific symptoms that may indicate this form of incontinence are urinary frequency (8 or more times in day or more than twice at night), urinary urgency (sudden and strong need to urinate immediately), urge incontinence (leakage of urine following a strong and sudden urge), lastly awaking at night to urinate.

If you or a loved one experience any of the above symptoms you are encouraged to attend the seminar on August 16th or to speak to your healthcare provider about seeing our Occupational Therapist to evaluate and help treat your incontinence issues.

Information: Idaho Pain Clinic, idahopainclinic.com or 208-263-9757