Who is at risk for stress urinary incontinence? What are the risk factors for stress urinary incontinence? A friend asked who is at high risk for stress urinary incontinence. Also what are the risk factors for stress incontinence? There are two main groups of people with a high incidence of stress incontinence: young women who have just given birth, that is, women who have given birth vaginally. These patients may experience stress incontinence due to temporary relaxation of the pelvic floor after childbirth. Another category is middle-aged and elderly women. As for the high-risk factors for stress urinary incontinence, there are two main categories: one is birth injuries, and the other is factors that cause increased abdominal pressure. Birth injuries are the most common cause of stress urinary incontinence, and if there is a tear in the perineum during normal delivery, damage to the anal raphe may cause temporary or permanent stress urinary incontinence, while some factors that cause increased abdominal pressure, such as obesity, long-term constipation, etc., are also among the factors that cause a high incidence of urinary incontinence. How can I determine the severity of stress incontinence? There are three ways to determine the severity of stress urinary incontinence: The first method is suitable for patients to self-test, for general patients, if incontinence occurs occasionally when coughing or sneezing, this belongs to mild incontinence. If incontinence occurs frequently when coughing, sneezing or when abdominal pressure rises, this is considered moderate. If incontinence occurs when you are lying flat in bed or when you turn over, this is considered severe incontinence. The second method is the urine pad test, because many people with incontinence need to wear sanitary napkins or pads in their underwear to prevent involuntary leakage of urine. We can evaluate the severity of incontinence based on the volume of urine from the pad, which is a weighing of the pad line. The third method is performed in the hospital, where we measure the patient’s abdominal pressure leak point pressure ALPP by means of a diagnostic device for urinary incontinence, which is commonly known as a urodynamic test, and in this way we can objectively evaluate the severity of incontinence. Does stress urinary incontinence affect sexual life? Affect pregnancy? The first is whether stress incontinence has any effect on pregnancy. The second is whether stress incontinence has any effect on sexual life? For the first question, we know that pregnant women often experience stress incontinence during the late stages of pregnancy, when they are about to give birth, due to physiological problems. If you have had problems with stress incontinence before, it may become more of a problem during pregnancy. Therefore, we say that stress incontinence can have an impact on pregnancy. For sex, we know that during sex, the pelvic floor has to bear a certain amount of weight and pressure. If you have previous or existing stress incontinence, you may also experience leakage or involuntary flow of urine during sex, which can cause a very embarrassing situation. Therefore, we believe that stress incontinence is not a life-threatening condition, but it can have an impact on your quality of life and pregnancy. How effective is laser treatment for stress incontinence? Some of our friends are concerned about the effectiveness of laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence. For this question, I think so, first of all, laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence is a means of treating this disease, as any kind of treatment has its advantages and disadvantages, but also has its indications. We believe that laser treatment of urinary incontinence is mainly suitable for young patients with relatively mild symptoms, if the symptoms are very heavy, stress urinary incontinence persists for many years, and older patients are not suitable. So to evaluate how effective a treatment is, you have to choose the right people, so my personal recommendation is that if you are a young woman with mild to moderate symptoms of stress incontinence, you can try laser treatment. It has the benefit of being minimally invasive, secondly it is fast, and thirdly the efficacy is exact and has little impact on your life. Assuming your symptoms are more severe, I would recommend that you choose other treatment options. Who can use laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence? Which patients are suitable for the use of laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence? In general, laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence is a very popular treatment in recent years and its treatment results are positive. According to my personal clinical experience, I believe that laser treatment of stress urinary incontinence is mainly suitable for the following cases: the first younger women, because younger women, her pelvic floor muscle tone is still relatively good, and most of these patients are mild stress urinary incontinence. Laser treatment as a minimally invasive means, it is not very satisfactory for severe urinary incontinence, but it is very effective for mild to moderate treatment. In addition, because the vaginal mucosa is relatively thick in young women, the discomfort during the treatment is very light in terms of pain. The third one is that we have some other treatments, such as surgery, sling surgery, which may cause discomfort during sex after the surgery for some patients. Therefore, we believe that in sexually active women, especially young women, if there is stress urinary incontinence, we still prefer laser treatment. If laser treatment does not work well, other treatment options are available. How many times do I have to have laser treatment for stress incontinence? Other friends mentioned the question of how long is the course of laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence and how many times does it need to be done? Generally speaking, according to the principle of treatment, we generally believe that the first treatment of stress urinary incontinence, the application of laser is to treat three times, each of the three intervals of one month, that is to say, once a month, a total of three treatments, that is three months. Generally, after three times, for mild stress urinary incontinence, its effect is very good, more than 90% of patients can be well treated, the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence basically disappeared. However, as a non-invasive treatment, laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence has a certain time frame. It is possible that a slight recurrence of symptoms may occur one and a half to two years after treatment. Therefore, we recommend that after the initial treatment, the patient is advised to have one or two more sessions a year or a year and a half apart, and to maintain this frequency in order to achieve better results. Who can use sling surgery to treat stress urinary incontinence? Which groups of people can apply sling surgery to treat stress urinary incontinence? Sling surgery for stress urinary incontinence is a very well established surgical treatment for patients with moderate to severe stress urinary incontinence, or for those who have not been treated by other means, such as laser or Kegel exercises or pelvic floor training, and have failed. Sling surgery for stress urinary incontinence is generally safe and effective. In our experience, 90% of patients achieve a very good outcome, and another 10% achieve a better remission. Overall, as long as the indications are chosen appropriately and the correct evaluation and diagnosis are made before surgery, the results of sling surgery for stress urinary incontinence are generally very definite and effective, and the likelihood of postoperative complications is minimal. In addition, the efficacy of the procedure can be maintained for many years. How long does it take to recover from stress incontinence sling surgery? The question of how long it takes to recover from sling surgery treatment is also a very critical one, and one that many of our friends are very interested in knowing about. Sling surgery as a minimally invasive surgery, overall in the post-operative recovery is relatively smooth, but also pay attention to the following points: the first just after the sling surgery because of the thigh root puncture point, so after the surgery there will be a certain amount of pain in the lower limbs, this will generally last two to three weeks. Of course, with the extension of time, this pain will gradually ease. Secondly, after the surgery, since the sling and the body are not completely fused together, so at this time is a critical period of recovery, we suggest that the patient should not lift heavy objects, cough or sneeze hard, or increase abdominal pressure during this period. This may cause the position of the sling to shift, resulting in poor postoperative outcomes. It is also important to pay attention to local hygiene. Although the incision is small, complications such as infection may occur. If you experience difficulty in urination, thinning of urination or a feeling of incomplete urination after surgery, you should go to the hospital for an early examination. At this time, we are all able to treat and improve in many ways. Also if you develop persistent urinary tract infections after surgery, you should also come to the hospital for treatment and examination because of the possibility of sling erosion. But overall for most patients, recovery from stress urinary incontinence is a very smooth process and generally speaking there are no serious problems.