Urinary Incontinence

What is urinary incontinence?

Urinary incontinence means you have trouble holding in your urine, often experiencing a dribble or more before you can make it to the closest restroom. It’s a common condition in aging women because of age- and childbirth-related changes to your pelvic floor muscles, which are largely responsible for controlling your bladder and urethra. 

While you might assume that there’s nothing you can do about your incontinence, Turning Point Women’s Center PA provides numerous treatment options to strengthen your pelvic floor and help you regain your urinary control. 

Which type of urinary incontinence do I have?

Turning Point Women’s Center PA provides treatment for several common types of urinary incontinence, which affect you in different ways. You might experience the symptoms of one or more types:

Stress incontinence

If you experience urinary leakage when you’re startled, exercising, laughing, or sneezing, you have stress incontinence. This means you can’t control your urine when pressure, often from muscle strain, is placed on your bladder. 

Urge incontinence

Also called an overactive bladder, urge incontinence causes you to feel like you need to urinate even when your bladder is empty. You regularly get the overwhelming urge to urinate, often followed by leakage you can’t control. 

Overflow incontinence

If you have overflow incontinence, you struggle to empty your bladder entirely when you relieve yourself. This often happens because of some blockage in the area and can cause you to involuntarily leak urine afterward with or without the urge to urinate. 

When you have symptoms of multiple types of urinary incontinence, it’s called mixed incontinence. 

What is the recommended treatment for urinary incontinence?

At Turning Point Women’s Center PA, Dr. Gentry provides complete evaluations and multiple treatments for urinary incontinence. In many cases, surgery is not a necessary part of treatment for the condition. 

Depending on the type of incontinence you have and its severity, Dr. Gentry might recommend:

• Medications
• Bladder training
• Double voiding (urinating twice before leaving the restroom)
• Scheduled restroom uses
• Pelvic floor exercises
• Pessary or urethral insert
• Medical injections (e.g., botulinum toxin)

Some surgeries can treat urinary incontinence too. In fact, Dr. Gentry is the first surgeon in the state to perform synthetic sling surgeries, which use human-made mesh material to support your bladder and urethra while preventing involuntary urinary leakage. 

To explore treatments for your urinary incontinence, call Turning Point Women’s Center PA or schedule an appointment online today.