‘Female stress incontinence’ occurs when you excrete urine from the bladder unconsciously during a physical activity due to pressure exerted on the bladder. It happens when your body is under immediate physical stress and the muscles that control the ability to hold weakens and fail to function promptly.

Activities like coughing, laughing, jumping, sneezing, robust exercise, heavy lifting or even while changing positions can cause stress incontinence. When the muscles become feeble after menopause because of the low estrogen level, post childbirth, pelvic surgery or from urethra injury, stress incontinence is common experience in women.

How is Stress Incontinence Treated?

Treatment of stress incontinence depends on how the symptoms have affected your life style. Below given are some of the ways  of treating female stress incontinence :

Behavior Changes

Whenever an urge to urinate is felt, you should not hold it. Avoid consuming fluid excessively as it increases the tendency to urinate. Include fiber content food in your diet to avoid constipation. Moreover, refrain from jumping, running and lifting of heavy loads. Carbonated drinks, citrus as well as spicy foods are not a good option for stress incontinence as it causes bladder irritation. Losing weight helps you to control the stomach and bladder pressure.

Non- Surgical Treatment and Pelvic Floor Muscle Training

Kegel exercise’ treatment helps to strengthen the muscles that cage the urine. The process includes squeezing of the muscles that ceases the urine flow. The method of ‘ Biofeedback’ helps to identify and control the pelvic floor muscles. Physical Therapies add to strengthening the muscles. Squeezing of the pelvic muscles with the assistance of vaginal cones is also an effective training that helps to reduce the symptoms of stress incontinence.

Medications

If you suffer from mild stress incontinence, then doctors prescribe medicines as cure. ‘Anticholinergic’ medicines contribute to the relaxation of the muscles of the bladder.‘ Antimuscarinic’ medicine prevents contraction of the bladder. ‘ Beta agonist-mirabegron’ relaxes the bladder, whereas ‘Imipramine’ helps to relax the bladder muscles. For those women who have passed the phase of menopause, ‘Estrogen Theraphy’ is the best option.

Surgical Procedures

Sometimes, the doctors recommend surgery for stress incontinence when medications and behavioral treatments fail. When a collagen injects your urethra to decrease the symptom, it is known as an ‘Injectable Therapy’. ‘Tension free Vaginal Tape’ surgery is a urethra supportive surgery. When there is a situation where the bladder bulges into the vaginal canal, then ‘Anterior or Paravaginal vaginal Repair’ surgery is opted. ‘Retropubic Suspensions’ lifts the urethra and bladder to normal positions.

Neuromodulation

It is an expensive therapy performed with a device approved by the FDA called ‘Interstim’. The doctor applies an external stimulator to check if the neuromodulation works well on you. If there is a 50 per cent reduction in symptom, then the device is implanted. Neuromodulation is opted when drugs and behavioral treatment does not yield result.

Additionally, other ways of treating stress incontinence in females include using Catheter tube to drain urine or making use of menstrual pads to absorb leakage.