You are suffering
from urinary incontinence if:
- You
are older than 18
- You
are having difficulty holding your urine
- Urine
leaks while coughing, sneezing, or performing any physical tasks
In such situations
you are in a quandary as to which line of treatment to choose.
Yes, you must first
consult a doctor who will decide whether you really suffer from urinary
incontinence.
The doctor may ask
you a lot of questions. He or she will go through your medical history to
evaluate which type of incontinence you suffer from - stress incontinence or
urgency incontinence.
The reasons for
urinary incontinency are several.
The chief underlying
cause is the muscles you use to hold urine are no longer as strong as they were
before.
Weakened pelvic
muscles can be due to the aging process, pregnancy, having undergone C section
for delivering the baby, being overweight, or because of frequent urinary
infections.
Most doctors
recommend conservative treatment to start with. These include:
- bladder
training
- special
exercises – like Pelvic Floor Muscle Training ( PFMT)
- medication
- Devices
that perform percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, and magnetic and
electric stimulation
If conservative
treatments fail to deliver results, doctors may recommend surgery.
The practice of
performing surgery for urinary incontinence has changed significantly over the
last many years. The numbers have increased dramatically.
The various
procedures now in place include:
- colposuspension
and needle suspension procedures
- bladder
neck buttress
- tension
free vaginal tape
- retropubic
suspension
- urethral
sling
If noninvasive
treatments do not work, for urinary incontinence surgery, Maryland has a few
good doctors.
Fortunately,
surgeries to treat incontinence are now having a good record of success.
Yet, women must not
ignore the noninvasive options as the first line of treatment before they
decide on surgery.
“Try Kegel first”,
says an urologist. “Strengthening the pelvic floor is the most basic approach”.
If after exhausting
all noninvasive methods, women feel surgery is needed, then finding the right
surgeon is the first step.
A good surgeon is one
who is qualified in pelvic female medicine and reconstructive surgery and has
performed several successful operations.
Quite often the
procedure can be an outpatient one.
Sling procedures are
an example.
In the sling
procedure for urinary
incontinence surgery, Maryland doctors administer local anesthesia. For other procedures like retro pubic suspension,
surgeons administer either general or spinal anesthesia that can involve
hospital stay.
For many women,
urinary incontinence surgery has been a life changer.
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