What Causes Incontinence in Women?

Maybe you wet your yourself when you cough or lose total control the second you approach the shower. Whatever form your incontinence takes, it’s best to understand the cause. Once you know what makes your bladder control weak, you’ll begin the path to improvement.

You’re not alone. More than 70 percent of women 40 to 64 have incontinence issues. A quarter of women in that age group leak every day; 65 percent lose urine, unplanned, monthly. Your friends may not be talking about this inconvenient, odorous and embarrassing problem, but — if they’re middle-aged — most of them are battling it. Similarly, pregnant women and those who have had babies in recent months might struggle to get their bladders to comply with their wishes, too.

2 Primary Types of Incontinence

There are two primary types of urinary incontinence:

• Overactive bladder. If you feel a strong urge to urinate, and often, you likely have an overactive bladder. Your pelvic muscles squeeze and release without you wanting them to, even when your bladder is nearly empty.
• Stress incontinence. If your bladder lets urine loose when you’re jogging, sneezing, bending or coughing, for instance, that’s known as stress incontinence. You’re active, something internal puts pressure on your bladder, and urine flows.

Primary Causes of Incontinence

If you’ve delivered at least one baby vaginally, chances are high that’s the cause of your incontinence, whichever type you have. The baby passing through your body can wreak havoc on your pelvic floor. Those are the muscles that, among other things, let you control urine flow.

A whole lot of other situations can trigger, or expand, bladder control issues. It pays to pinpoint what’s causing your challenge so you and your doctor can figure out how to treat it.

• Childbirth. You’ll likely snap back to having strong bladder control within three months of delivering a baby, but, over time, those muscles can get weak for good. In addition to tinkering with the nerves in your pelvic muscles, vaginal childbirth can even lead to your bladder dropping to a lower position in your body. That in turn can put pressure on other organs including the bladder.
• Menopause. Just as your triceps sag and your neck loses firmness during the years menstruation stops, your pelvic floor muscles and your urethra — the tube that leads urine out of the body — become weaker. That’ll be thanks to a natural decrease in estrogen.
• Collagen defects. If you were born ultra-flexible, you might have a version of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS. Your pelvic floor muscles might become as flexible as other muscles, which can lead to incontinence.
• Foods and beverages. While a fourth coffee refill or some spicy guacamole won’t cause a permanent problem, many things you eat and drink can temporarily lead your bladder to go rogue. Caffeine and alcohol top the list, but look at chili peppers, vitamin C supplements, artificial sweeteners and bubbly soft drinks.
• Urinary tract infections. An infection within your urinary tract can cause havoc. Once you finish effective antibiotics, the problem should lift.
• Medicines. If you’re taking muscle relaxers, blood pressure meds, diuretics or even sedatives for other medical reasons, your bladder control may decrease until you stop taking those drugs.
• Neurological disorders. Strokes, brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other brain-based situations can lead to incontinence issues. That’s due to scrambled messages from your brain to your pelvic floor.
• Weight. If you’re overweight, the extra pounds or fat in your body can press on your bladder. That in turn can weaken your pelvic muscles.
• Surgery. Female surgeries including hysterectomy can damage your bladder muscles, leading to a struggle to control urine flow.
• Constipation. If you strain to have bowel movements regularly, that can weaken the muscles that help you hold in urine.

Find the Right Treatment

There’s good reason to pinpoint the root of your incontinence, if you can: Once you know the cause, your doctor will know how to treat it.

Not all incontinence can be cured, but pelvic floor specialists can, at the very least, minimize your symptoms. Also known as urogynecologists, their treatment plan can be as simple as teaching you the correct way to do kegel exercises.

That’s not always enough, and these specialists have several other options, depending on the cause, and severity, of your incontinence. Solutions range from pelvic floor physical therapy, in some cases, to sling procedures, bulking agents, biofeedback, nerve stimulation,  prolapse repairs and medicine. Some are quick and simple; others more involved.

You can fix this problem, at least in part. You have to speak up, though, to start the repair process. Even if your incontinence issues are small and infrequent, visit a specialist. Don’t wait until the issue becomes so bad that it makes you depressed and changes your quality of life.

Whether you need to make a few behavioral changes or undergo surgery, you’ll end up seeing a big difference. That will make your life happier.