Urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence is when you pee by accident. It can happen when doing exercise like running, lifting weights at the gym or jumping on a trampoline.

Urinary incontinence can affect anyone. It tends to be more common in women.

Further information about urinary incontinence in women

Although it’s common, it shouldn’t be thought of as normal. There are things you can do to reduce the chance of this happening and improve your symptoms.

How to prevent urinary incontinence

There are things you can do that may help reduce the chance of urinary incontinence in the future.

Do

• strengthen you pelvic floor muscles with simple pelvic floor exercises
• stay active
• maintain a healthy weight
• avoid or cut down on alcohol and caffeinated drinks, such as coffee, tea and some fizzy drinks

Types of urinary incontinence

The 2 most common types of urinary incontinence are:

• stress incontinence – pee leaking out when your bladder is under pressure (life when you laugh, cough, sneeze, exercise or lift something heavy)
• urge incontinence – feeling a sudden and very intense need to pee and being unable to stop it

Less common types of incontinence are:

• mixed incontinence – having both stress and urge incontinence
• overflow incontinence (also called chronic urinary retention) – the bladder cannot completely empty
• total incontinence – severe and continuous urinary incontinence

When to get medical advice

Speak to your GP practice if:

You have any symptoms of urinary incontinence, such as:

• peeing by accident
• feeling a sudden need to pee and are unable to stop it

What causes urinary incontinence?

The causes of urinary incontinence depend on the type.

Certain things can increase the chances of urinary incontinence developing, including:

• being overweight
• a family history of incontinence
• getting older – but incontinence doesn’t happen just because you’ve aged
• if you’re a woman, pregnancy and vaginal birth
• if you’re a man, having surgery to remove the prostate gland

Diagnosing urinary incontinence

Your GP will ask you some questions to understand what may be causing the incontinence and how bad it is.

They may also:

• try to rule out other things that could be causing your symptoms, such as a urinary tract infection
• suggest you keep a diary of how much fluid you drink and how often you have to pee
• carry out a pelvic examination (in women) or rectal examination (in men) – as this is an intimate examination, there may be another person (chaperone) present
• refer you to a specialist, usually a physiotherapist

Treatment for urinary incontinence

Treatments which do not involve taking medication or having surgery are usually tried first. These include:

• treating the underlying cause, if urinary incontinence is caused by another condition
• lifestyle changes – such as reducing your caffeine intake, changing how much you drink, and maintaining a healthy weight
• pelvic floor muscle training – your healthcare professional will explain how to do these exercises
• bladder training – techniques to increase the length of time between feeling the need to go to the toilet and peeing

Incontinence products (like pads or pants) aren’t a treatment for urinary incontinence. But you might find them helpful while you are waiting for assessment or for a treatment to start working.

If these treatments don’t work for you, your doctor may suggest trying other treatments, like medication or surgery. This will depend on the cause and type of incontinence you are experiencing.