Understanding Urinary And Fecal Incontinence

The most current estimate suggests that over 20 million Americans suffer from urinary incontinence and at least 10 percent of these Americans also suffer from fecal incontinence. Bowel and bladder incontinence is a source of embarrassment and often that embarrassment prevents the patient from asking for help for their problem. Incontinence can affect the quality of life and prevent a patient from enjoying everyday activities that other people take for granted. The family is often impacted because of the patient's reluctance to go out in public.

The good news is that urinary and fecal incontinence can be significantly improved or even cured. Finding the underlying problem will be important, incontinence is not a disease, and it is a symptom. There may be many causes and can be complex in analyzing the root problem.

The first step is to make an appointment with your doctor. They will want to do an evaluation and order diagnostic tests to find out what the main problem is. Most of these tests can be done on an outpatient basis and are not usually painful. Once the reason for the incontinence is found, treatment can be started, many of which do not include surgery. No matter how bad you think your incontinence problem is, you can be helped and often cured of the problem.

There are many reasons for urinary incontinence. Urge incontinence is when you have the sensation to void and suddenly you lose your urine. This problem is called "overactive bladder" caused by weak sphincter muscles that control the flow of urine from the bladder. Muscles of an overactive bladder override the muscles that control the urethra and allow the urine to seep out. There are medicines that can be prescribed by your doctor to help the overactive bladder problem. Your doctor may start you out with a low dose of the medication and increase the dose until it controls your overactive bladder. There are some side effects and they should be discussed with your doctor before you start the medication. Medications for bladder incontinence are only available through a prescription. Some antidepressant medications are helpful in controlling overactive bladder problems. Medications that have proven helpful in treating urinary incontinence are Ditropan, Ditropan XL, Oxytrol, Pro-Banthine and Detrol. Some dicyclomines are also helpful. These help with controlling spasms and involuntarily releasing urine from the bladder.

Stress incontinence happens when the body sneezes or coughs and puts extra pressure on the bladder. Women who have had children are more likely to have stress incontinence problems because the muscles of the pelvic floor are weakened during pregnancy and birth. Stress incontinence can occur because sphincter muscles are weak at the neck of the bladder or there is a problem with the way the muscle opens and closes. The same medications used for overactive bladder can be used to help those patients who have mild stress incontinence. Agents may also be injected into the lining of the urethra increasing the lining size and creating resistance against the flow of urine.

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