Who is at risk for stress urinary incontinence? What are the risk factors for stress urinary incontinence? A friend asked which groups of people are at high risk for stress urinary incontinence? And what are the risk factors for stress incontinence? There are two main groups of people who are at high risk for stress incontinence: young women who have just given birth, that is, women who have given birth vaginally. These patients may develop stress incontinence due to temporary relaxation of the pelvic floor after giving birth. The other group is middle-aged and elderly women. The risk factors for stress incontinence are divided into two main categories: one is birth trauma, and the other is factors that cause increased abdominal pressure. Birth injury is the most common cause of stress urinary incontinence, if there is a perineal tear, anus muscle injury during labor, may cause temporary or permanent stress urinary incontinence, and some factors that lead to increased abdominal pressure, such as obesity, long-term constipation and so on, are also one of the factors of high incidence of urinary incontinence. How to determine the severity of stress incontinence? There are three ways to determine the severity of stress urinary incontinence: The first method is suitable for patient self-testing: for general patients, if urinary incontinence occurs occasionally when coughing, sneezing, this is a mild incontinence. If urinary incontinence occurs frequently when coughing, sneezing, or when abdominal pressure rises, this is moderate. If you experience incontinence when you lie flat on your back or turn over in bed, this is considered severe incontinence. The second method is the urinary pad test: because many people with incontinence need to put a sanitary napkin or urinary pad in their underwear to prevent involuntary leakage of urine. We can evaluate the severity of incontinence based on the amount of urine from the pads, i.e., by weighing the pads. The third method is performed in the hospital: we measure the patient’s abdominal pressure leakage point pressure (ALPP) by means of incontinence diagnostic equipment, i.e., the commonly used urodynamic examination, by which the severity of the incontinence is objectively evaluated. Does stress incontinence affect sexual life? Affect pregnancy? There are two other concerns. The first is whether stress incontinence has any effect on pregnancy? The second is whether stress incontinence has any effect on sex life. For the first question, we know that pregnant women often experience stress urinary incontinence in the late stages of pregnancy, when they are about to give birth to a baby, due to physiological problems. If you have had problems with stress incontinence before, it can become more of a problem during pregnancy. This is why we say that stress incontinence can have an impact on pregnancy. For sex, we know that the pelvic floor has to bear a certain amount of weight and pressure during sex. If you have previous or existing stress incontinence, you may also experience leakage or involuntary urination during sex, which can be very embarrassing. Therefore, we believe that although stress incontinence is not a life-threatening condition, it can have an impact on your quality of life and pregnancy.