Regain Control of Your Bladder
If you've been struggling with urge incontinence it can be hard to know what to do. Often the urgent feeling is so strong that it feels impossible to resist it - nobody wants to end up having an accident in public! Unfortunately by giving into this panicky, 'need to go NOW!' feeling all the time you will actually be making this problem worse. When you go in response to this urge, your bladder starts to think that it has a far smaller capacity than it really does. It's a vicious cycle! But you can stop it via something called bladder training; just follow our guide.
Your Guide to Bladder Training
The main aim of bladder training is to slowly increase the amount of time between your toilet visits. This can feel difficult and unnatural at first as you may be worried about having accidents or leaks. It's important to remember that urge incontinence is mostly in your head - ignoring that panicky feeling is unlikely to lead to accidents as long as you try hard to remain in control.
The next time you feel a strong urge, try taking these three steps:
- When you feel the urge, stop and do 3-5 quick Kegels
- Relax, take a deep breath and concentrate on something else
- If you still need the toilet when the urge is gone then go as normal
You should aim to delay going to the toilet for an increasing amount of time until you can go for 3-4 hours without peeing. The average person wees around 5-8 times in 24 hours and doesn't need to get up during the night more than once (and preferably not at all). If you are going to the toilet multiple times a night then you are definitely in need of bladder training.
The best way to get started with bladder training is to use a bladder diary. This will help you to find out how often you go and what patterns and triggers you have. We've put together an exclusive bladder diary for you to use, which includes all of the information you need to start bladder training. Use it every day for a week to give you an idea of what your goals should be.
Using Your Bladder Diary
There are enough spaces in the diary to record information for every hour of the day. Each time you go to the toilet, note down the the specifics of what happened like this:
- Drinks – Had you had something to drink before? Was it just water, or was it something that irritates the bladder like caffeine or alcohol? This will alert you to any triggers.
- Bathroom Visits – How many times in that hour did you go to the toilet? Did a normal amount come out, or just little bit? This shows you if you really needed to go or if it was your urge incontinence.
- Amount of Leaks – Record any accidents you had and how much came out.
- Strong Urge? – Tick whether or not you felt that panicky urge incontinence feeling.
- Activity - Some women have triggers that give them the urge to urinate, e.g. exercise, being near running water or putting their key in the door when they get home. Record these to find out if there are specific scenarios you need to concentrate on when retraining your bladder.
After a week of recording your toilet visits in the bladder diary you can start your training. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to begin with - look at what your average time between peeing is and reduce it by 10 minutes or so.
Pay attention to whether certain activities trigger you. For example if you are always getting the urge when you get home from work try waiting for a minute before going, then when you have done that successfully up it to two minutes. It can also help to reduce any food or drink triggers you are notice, for example by reducing the amount of coffee you drink or spreading it out more over the course of the day.
Alleviate the symptoms of bladder weakness & strengthen the pelvic floor in just 12 weeks, with the help of the Kegel8 Ultra 20 & Amanda Savage!
Amanda Savage is one of the UK’s leading specialist pelvic floor and women’s health physiotherapists, who has worked in the field for over 20 years offering supervised pelvic floor muscle training and support for the recovery of pelvic organ prolapses, incontinence and pelvic surgeries. With post-graduate qualifications, including a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, she has also gained full membership of the Professional Network of Pelvic, Obstetric & Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP). As a Kegel8 ambassador, Amanda Savage has worked alongside us for many years in the development of our best-selling device, the Kegel8 Ultra 20 V2 Electronic Pelvic Toner, to ensure its efficacy. In addition, she has been integral to ensuring all supporting information and instructions are medically accurate so that the device is used correctly/effectively, and treatment is tailored to the specific condition of the user.
Find out more about Amanda Savage, her qualifications, experience, knowledge, and affiliations here.
Comes complete with an easy exercise plan, created by Amanda Savage, to get results in just 12 weeks!
If ‘laughter leaks’ are making you want to cry, you are by no means alone! Indeed, more common that you may realise, bladder weakness and stress incontinence affect millions of people worldwide. And, here at Kegel8, we are all too familiar with the impact it has on both physical and emotional well-being, as well as on life in general. It’s true that, left untreated, symptoms of bladder weakness will simply worsen over time. However, it should by no means be accepted as an inevitability! Indeed, regular pelvic floor exercise, much like any other type of exercise, will strengthen the muscles over time, enabling them to perform their role much more effectively and offer the right amount of support to the bladder to ensure there are no leakages. In addition, it can calm ‘overactive’ nerves for those experiencing ‘jumpy’ or ‘irritable’ sensations in their bladder. That means you can get back to doing all the things you love!
The included 12-week exercise plan has been specifically developed by Amanda Savage to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and enable them to provide optimum support to the neck of the bladder, thus preventing any leakages. In addition, it will calm the ‘overactive’ nerves that are responsible for ‘jumpy’ or ‘irritable’ sensations in the bladder, thereby reducing bladder sensitivity. In addition, it prepares the user for ‘real life’ scenarios where they don’t have access to the machine.
So, why opt for an electronic pelvic floor exerciser rather than performing your Kegels independently?
It is thought that many women push downwards when performing independent pelvic floor exercises, which, rather than strengthening the muscles, can lead to further damage. In addition, it can be difficult to locate and target the correct muscles, making exercise less effective. As such, many women opt to use an electronic pelvic floor toner to ensure effective exercise and optimum results. The Kegel8 Ultra 20 V2 Electronic Pelvic Toner removes the guesswork and essentially acts as a Sat-Nav for your pelvic floor muscles, correctly targeting and stimulating a contraction within them using a small electric current. These contractions build strength and tone in a matter of weeks! With 20 clinically proven pelvic floor exercise programmes which vary in frequency, intensity and duration, the Ultra 20 is proven to treat a variety of different conditions, including bladder weakness and stress incontinence. And, in addition to tailored programmes, the specific 12-week exercise plans created by Amanda Savage advise exactly how the device should be used, depending upon the condition, to ensure the very best treatment.