How is urinary incontinence treated?
There are many ways to treat incontinence. Your doctor will work with you to find the best treatment for you. Treatments include: • Pelvic Muscle Exercises (Kegel exercises) — easy exercises to make your pelvic muscles stronger. Doing these exercises every day can help reduce or cure stress leakage. If you’re not sure you’re doing Kegel exercises right, ask your doctor or nurse to check you while you try to do them. If you aren’t squeezing the right muscles, your doctor or nurse can teach you the right way to do the exercises. A pelvic floor physical therapist may be available in your area to help teach you how to strengthen these muscles or help you with other treatments listed below. • Electrical Stimulation — electrodes are placed in the vagina or rectum for a short time to stimulate nearby muscles and make them stronger. This treatment can reduce both stress incontinence and urge incontinence. • Biofeedback — biofeedback helps you learn how your body works. A therapist puts an elec
The key to treatment is to identify the specific type of incontinence. This can be done by performing a careful medical history and focused physical exam. Some diagnostic tests are used to help identify the disorders. Some of these tests include urinalysis, simple CMG, cystoscopy and complex urodynamics. Stress Incontinence can be treated with weight loss, estrogen creams, and pelvic rehab using biofeedback, pessary, trans-urethral bulking agents, or surgery. Urge Incontinence can be effectively treated with timed voiding, pelvic rehab using biofeedback, medications and neuromodulation using Interstim neuromodulation Overflow Incontinence may be treated with pelvic rehab using biofeedback, behavior modification, medications, or correction of a prolapse.
