Sister Zhang, 37 years old, cheerful, healthy, in the field can often see its athletic figure, hear its cheerful laughter. In the past year or so, the family found that Zhang’s laughter gradually reduced, sadness crept up the frown, busy place in addition to the field outside the home, and an additional —- toilet.
It turns out that Zhang more than a year, gradually appeared a “small” problem, all day long want to urinate, have a strong desire to urinate, a slight delay is unbearable, serious need to urinate every 10 minutes, usually at home okay, but when there are friends gathering and busy farm work in the field —- embarrassing! Worry! In the company of family members, I do not know how many tests were done, ate a lot of drugs, have not seen any improvement. The original cheerful sister Zhang became depressed, irritable, speech reduced, do not like to go out, often appear insomnia.?
What’s wrong with Zhang’s sister?
In fact, Zhang has OAB. OAB (Overactive Bladder) is the abbreviation for “overactive bladder syndrome”. It is “a syndrome characterized by urinary urgency, often accompanied by urinary frequency and nocturia symptoms, with or without urge incontinence”.
Urgency is a sudden and strong urge to urinate that is difficult to delay.
Frequent urination refers to excessively frequent urination, more than 8 times a day.
Nocturia is the need to get up 2 or more times during the night to go to the bathroom.
Urge incontinence is when uncontrollable leakage of urine occurs after the onset of urinary urgency.
OAB is a common condition that is not life-threatening, but it can seriously affect a patient’s quality of life. Symptoms such as urinary urgency, frequency, nocturia and urge incontinence can affect all aspects of a patient’s life. In particular, frequent trips to the toilet can cause great distress to patients’ daily life and work, overshadowing their physical and mental health, social interactions, sexual life and career development. Patients with frequent nighttime urination can have their sleep quality seriously affected, even causing insomnia. Frequent nighttime visits to the toilet by the elderly also increase the risk of fractures due to falls. If OAB patients do not seek treatment, these symptoms can become a “staple” of their daily lives as they progress, causing them great pain.
The prevalence of OAB tends to increase significantly with age, and is higher in women than in men. Middle-aged and older women in particular are the most likely to be approached by OAB. In addition, OAB also likes to harass people who have the following habits or behavioral characteristics: long-term vegetarian diet, prefer to drink coffee and tea and other beverages, people who are engaged in long-term physical labor, people who smoke too much and have been smoking for too long, people who drink liquor frequently, women who have given birth and have stopped menstruating, women who have given birth or scraped the uterus more often, and men with prostate disorders.
OAB has a serious impact on the quality of life of patients, but the current status of OAB patients in China is not ideal for consultation and treatment. Among patients who do not seek medical care, about 80% believe that OAB-related symptoms are normal for the elderly, not a major disease, and that it is okay not to treat them. In fact, OAB and other urological diseases are both physical and psychological diseases, and neglecting treatment will bring great distress to patients’ lives. Foreign surveys have shown that the incidence of depression is significantly higher in OAB patients than in non-OAB patients.
Patients like Zhang should seek help from the urology department of a regular hospital as early as possible, and through professional and effective treatment, the right way to cope is to release the disease and avoid triggering other diseases.
(After treatment, Zhang’s condition has improved significantly and she has regained her optimism and confidence!)