Stress Incontinence in Women
Urinary incontinence is a common and prevalent condition in women, and with the general increase in human life expectancy, the incidence of female incontinence is increasing every year, with tens of millions of women estimated to suffer from incontinence worldwide. China is a large population, and the aging of the population has become increasingly evident since the second half of the 20th century. With the increase in the number of elderly and senior citizens, more and more women are suffering from urinary incontinence, which seriously affects the quality of life and physical health.
In China, many middle-aged and elderly women encounter an embarrassing situation: whenever they cough or laugh at something happy, their pants will be wet with a little effort on their abdomen. This is because, with age, especially after childbirth, women’s pelvic floor relaxation, bladder urinary storage capacity is increasingly weakened, coupled with women’s urethra is shorter than that of men, so nearly half of women over 50 years of age will have frequent urination, urinary urgency, urinary incontinence phenomenon.
In fact, this is a complete abnormality, which is a disease. Medically, this non-life-threatening phenomenon of involuntary flow of urine when coughing, sneezing, laughing or exercising and other increases in abdominal pressure is called stress urinary incontinence. Although urinary incontinence is not a fatal disease, it brings a lot of inconvenience to women’s lives and often causes great distress to patients.
Why urinary incontinence occurs
Stress incontinence is caused by factors such as birth injuries and menopause, which cause the muscles at the bottom of the pelvis to relax, reducing the ability of the urethra to control urine. Women have wide pelvic bones and weak muscle support, and the urethra is shorter in women than in men, averaging only 3 CM. This, coupled with damage to the pelvic floor muscles from pregnancy and childbirth, the decline in estrogen levels in women after middle age, and atrophy of the urethral mucosa, all contribute to women being more prone to urinary incontinence than men.
Mild incontinence occurs during coughing and sneezing, moderate occurs during daily activities such as walking quickly, and severe occurs in the standing position.
Risk factors for morbidity
Incidence of urinary incontinence is associated with age, gender, vaginal delivery, sleep, obesity, living alone, and lack of assistance. The prevalence is significantly higher in those who are older, have more vaginal deliveries, vaginal instrumental deliveries, newborns weighing more than 4000 grams, mobility impairment, widowhood, and obesity.
The incidence of urinary incontinence tends to increase with age, and stress urinary incontinence is the most common type of incontinence in women, with the onset group being mainly multiparous and premenopausal women. The incidence of urge incontinence in postmenopausal women increases gradually with age, and the incidence of stress incontinence decreases relatively, showing a gradual decline.
Among various chronic diseases, frequent constipation, chronic cough, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, fracture, cognitive impairment, and diabetes mellitus are associated with the onset of urinary incontinence. Studies by other scholars have also shown that white and Asian women are prone to stress urinary incontinence and that women in the Americas and Africa have a higher prevalence of urge incontinence.
Whether to see a doctor
Urge incontinence, although a troublesome condition, does not seem to be taken very seriously in everyday life. Many people believe that physical or physiological changes occur and that it is not necessary to see a doctor because they cannot control their urine and leak a little. Many female patients are influenced by economic culture and religious taboos and prefer to take self-care rather than seek help from a doctor. Some patients feel incontinence is difficult to talk about, embarrassed to tell the doctor, preferring to change pants and use pee pads rather than go to the hospital.
In fact, urinary incontinence is not a minor problem. Frequent urine loss and leakage in women may cause eczema, bed sores, skin infections and inflammation of the urinary system. And urinary incontinence causes bad feelings such as anxiety, embarrassment and frustration in women, which can also seriously affect their quality of life. If the odor causes anxiety, anxiety, loss of confidence, but also affect the normal social activities with friends and colleagues, and even affect sexual life.
For most women, urinary incontinence becomes more severe and less controllable after menopause as women lose more estrogen. Therefore, once you find yourself a female patient with urinary incontinence, you must not ignore it, think it is a minor problem and leave it alone, or be shy and afraid to face a male urologist and leave the disease to develop. Once the disease is discovered, it is important to see a doctor in a timely manner so as not to delay the condition. Nowadays, many hospitals have female doctors in their urology departments, which makes it very convenient for female patients to be treated for urinary tract diseases.
How to treat
The vast majority of patients with stress urinary incontinence can be completely cured or have their symptoms relieved with treatment. However, due to shyness, many patients do not receive proper treatment. Therefore, overcoming shyness and going to the hospital is the first step toward treatment. Generally speaking, urologists are specialists in the treatment of urinary incontinence.
Patients with mild to moderate incontinence can be treated with medication and behavioral therapy, while behavioral exercises are given to improve the efficacy of medication and reduce symptoms. For patients with severe stress urinary incontinence, surgical treatment is the mainstay, and there are a variety of procedures available. Various slings and suspension procedures are commonly used.
Many women are used to using sanitary napkins to solve the problem, and others do not think to seek a solution until several years later. If the patient is afraid of surgery, medication can be used first; if the patient’s incontinence is severe, surgery is recommended. Under the guidance of professional doctors, get rid of incontinence worries earlier, as soon as possible to restore “control”.
Women are “half the sky”, with the development of the economy, the status and role of women is becoming more and more significant, attention to women’s health is not only a matter of doctors, but the responsibility of society as a whole, female stress incontinence in recent years has become an international, socialized disease, with the arrival of China’s aging society, female stress incontinence Urinary incontinence is having an increasingly widespread impact on society. Let us spend a little more time and energy to pay attention to women and female stress incontinence, so that patients with stress incontinence can receive more reasonable treatment, so as to resume normal life and social activities, in order to improve the quality of life of middle-aged and elderly women in China.