Stress Urinary Incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine with any activity that increases intra-abdominal pressure like coughing, sneezing and laughing. Lifting weights can also contribute to this. The majority of women affected by Stress Urinary Incontinence find it a problem. Stress Urinary Incontinence can have a major impact on all aspects of well being. Since Stress Urinary Incontinence is mainly prevalent in young and middle aged women who have an active professional or social life, this might have a greater impact. These women may experience limitations in terms of physical (playing sports, lifting heavy weights) occupational and social activities because of fear of leakage of urine and related consequences (e.g. smell of urine, wetness, visibility of pads etc.). Stress Urinary Incontinence can also affect a woman’s sex life, social activities and interpersonal relationships.
What Causes Stress Urinary Incontinence?
The two most common causes that have been sited so far have been increased mobility or descent of the urethra or defect in the sphincter mechanism of the urethra. Recently diminished activity of the nerve (pudendal nerve) that supplies the sphincter has also been shown to cause Stress Urinary Incontinence. This happens because the pelvic floor muscles and tissues supporting the urethra lose strength due to various reasons including prostate surgery, pregnancy and vaginal child birth.
During the pregnancy, there is tremendous pressure that is laid on the tissues and muscles in the pelvis region as the baby grows inside. A lot tissues are torn during the vaginal child birth. This results in immediate Urinary Incontinence in women. The resilience nature of the muscles in this region grow stronger with time but not as strong and intact as they were before child delivery.
To know how pregnancy and child delivery affects the pelvic floor muscles in women, visit the following article:
Effect of Pregnancy and Child birth on pelvic floor
Men who undergo prostate removal (as a part of treating prostate cancer) can result in incontinence. Visit the following article to know how men can manage incontinence:
How Men can manage Urinary incontinence?