According to the Bladder and Bowel Foundation, National Continence Awareness Week for this year is from 20 September to 26 September. Just how much do you know about Stress Incontinence?
Stress incontinence affects 200 million people world wide. It may also be hereditary. Studies show 33% of men and women ages 30 - 70 have at some point experienced loss of bladder control. Within this group, 29% of people aged 60-70 endure stress incontinence compared to 17% of people ages 30 - 39.
Short Term Help
Are you surprised by these numbers? How many times have you been with a group, maybe at work or socially, where someone laughs then jokes that they've wet themselves. How many times have you silently thought to yourself, "Oh, me too!" You are obviously not alone in this, no matter what your age. Thankfully there are steps you can take to eradicate the problem.
In the short term there's pads and incontinence pants, men and women can also use catheters. Some people have even given up all together to avoid accidents in social situations by staying at home! Do you really want to do that?
Long Term Help
As far as long term help there's always surgery. There's the Tension-Free Vaginal Tape or TVT, and there's the Transobturator Tape or TOT surgery.
Pelvic Surgery is never fun. Neither is recovery. They can say it's non-invasive all they like but when you are getting poked and prodded on a table in theatre wearing nothing but a hospital gown surrounded by strangers while your feet are up in stirrups, I wouldn't want to see what their idea of invasive was really like!
Help from Kegel8
In the meantime, there are measures you can take to prevent surgery and even get did of the problem all together. Here is an Incontinence Blacklist of commonly used items which can cause or worsen urinary incontinence. Having a strong pelvic floor helps keep your bladder under control, you are doing your Kegel exercises aren't you?
If you're unsure whether or not you're doing the Kegels properly, there are devices out there that can do the work for you. The Kegel8 Ultra 20 Electronic Pelvic Toner features 20 clinically proven programmes that work deep within your muscles to target the right muscles, and exercise them in the right way. The Kegel8 Exercise Cones are non-electronic but the unique indicator tail lets you know when you are exercising the correct muscles.