When we eat or drink, a tremendous amount of work is going on inside our bodies to do many things, including making sure we process nutrients to fuel us and to remove waste and toxins we don’t need. Our urinary system is a vital filtration system that holds and eliminates this waste in the form of urine and helps keep our bodies working properly.
Conditions like urinary incontinence upset the balance in your urinary tract and make it harder for you to control your urine. There are several reasons you may have this condition, but whatever the reason, treatment is available. Let’s discover more about how your urinary system works, how incontinence can affect it, and how it can be treated.
Patients of the Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, and Greater South Florida areas struggling with incontinence or other urinary problems can get help from Drs. Craig Herman, Steven Kester, and the skilled medical team at the Urology Center of Florida.
Your urinary system is primarily a filter, moving toxins and waste out of your body while working alongside your gastrointestinal and circulatory systems. The food and drink we ingest work their way through our body in the digestive tract, where nutrients are broken down and passed into the bloodstream. What your body doesn’t need works its way through the urinary tract, where your kidneys, ureter, bladder and urethra work to eliminate it when you urinate.
Incontinence is the result of one or more parts of your urinary tract being affected by an infection, injury, or excess pressure exerted on your bladder. There are different types of incontinence, such as urge (an intense need to go), stress (often due to muscle weakness), overflow (inability to properly empty your bladder), and mixed (a combination of types).
Each of these types of incontinence makes it harder for you to control urination and leads to a struggle to reach the bathroom in time. These forms of incontinence are caused by a variety of conditions, including urinary tract infections (UTIs), medications, beverages, constipation, pelvic floor disorders, stroke, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and enlarged prostate.
Depending on the cause and severity of your incontinence, several treatment options are available:
Mild cases can be managed with behavioral techniques to retrain your bladder, such as delaying urination, double voiding, scheduling toilet trips, and managing your diet and fluids.
Kegel exercises are used to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, which support the tissues and organs in your pelvis. They include tightening the muscles you use to stop urinating, working up to holding the contractions for longer periods, and repeating this process several times a day.
Drugs can be used to calm an overactive bladder, relax the bladder muscles, and increase the amount of urine your bladder can hold. Anticholinergics, mirabegron (Myrbetriq), and alpha blockers are some of the medications that can be used for this purpose.
In more severe cases, surgery may be the best choice. Several surgeries, including sling procedures, bladder neck suspension, and artificial urinary sphincter procedures, can be done depending on your needs.
You can be afflicted with urinary incontinence for a number of reasons, but regardless of the reason, we’re here to help. Call or message our Pompano Beach, Florida, office today to get relief.
