Are you missing out on life because of a weak bladder?

What does the new study say?

The study, which involved nearly 680 women, found that 1 in 7 of them reported having had stress incontinence. And almost half of those with stress incontinence said they experienced urine leakage during routine activities. One-third said it only happened during sport.

The study also found that 3 in 10 women said that stress incontinence restricted what they did and 1 in 10 had given up their favourite sport because of stress incontinence. The sport that caused the most problems was basketball, followed by athletics, tennis and squash.

The average age of the women in the study was 36. The researchers said that if they had included older women, the figures would have been considerably higher.

What can I do about stress incontinence?

The good news is that there are some simple things you can do to improve your stress incontinence, even if you’ve had symptoms for many years.

Pelvic floor exercises

Research shows that special exercises called pelvic floor exercises can stop urine leakages. About 6 in 10 women say their symptoms are better after doing these exercises. If you do them every day, you should start to notice the benefits after about six weeks.

Before you start, you need to find the pelvic floor muscles. One way to do this to try and stop the flow of urine when you're sitting on the toilet. If you can do this, you’ve found the right muscles.

This is how to exercise your pelvic floor muscles:

• Pull in the muscles of your pelvic floor and hold for a count of four seconds. Then relax for a count of four seconds.
• Repeat this 10 times to 15 times each time you exercise. Work up to holding each contraction for six seconds, eight seconds and then 10 seconds.
• Do these exercises for five minutes at least two times or three times a day.
• You can do these exercises anywhere and anytime. For example, you can do them while you’re doing the washing up.

If you’re not sure you’re exercising the right muscles, or if you find the muscles difficult to identify, ask your doctor or a physiotherapist for help. If you still find it difficult to do these exercises, your doctor or physiotherapist might suggest you try electrical stimulation or vaginal cones. There is evidence that these two methods help strengthen the pelvic floor. During electrical stimulation a therapist puts a probe in or near your vagina and passes an electric current through your pelvic floor muscles. This makes the muscles tighten. You shouldn't feel any pain, but some women find this treatment irritates their vagina. If you're comfortable using the machine yourself, you can do this at home. You usually do it for 20 minutes to 60 minutes a day for about three weeks.

Vaginal cones are plastic cones that weigh between 20 to 100 grams. You start by putting the lightest cone into your vagina with the larger end up. You need to hold the cone in your vagina for 15 minutes twice a day. Once you can do this, you move on to the next heaviest cone.

Medicines

If your incontinence is more serious, your doctor might suggest you take a medicine called duloxetine (brand name Yentreve). Duloxetine belongs to a group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It's usually used to treat depression. But research has found it works for stress incontinence.

Like any medicine, duloxetine can have side effects and it is not suitable for everyone. You should not drink alcohol while taking it and you should not stop taking it suddenly. See your doctor if you have any changes in mood or any worrying thoughts while taking this medicine.

If other treatments haven’t helped, your doctor may advise you to have surgery. There are many different types of operation that are used to lift up the opening of the bladder. This should make it less likely that you'll leak when your bladder is put under stress.