Female urinary incontinence is a common disease in women, and currently, according to global statistics, the prevalence is close to 50%, with severe incontinence at about 7%, about half of which is stress incontinence. The prevalence rate in China is also basically comparable to this. Such a large population of patients has a serious impact on the quality of life and health status of women. Due to socioeconomic and cultural and educational factors, as well as women’s shyness about urinary abnormalities, female stress urinary incontinence has long been underappreciated by both doctors and patients. With the rapid growth of China’s national economy and the rapid improvement of people’s living standards, the many health and social problems caused by female stress urinary incontinence are gradually being taken seriously.
A, the type of incontinence?
1, stress urinary incontinence: the patient is coughing sneezing laughing and exercise and other sudden increases in abdominal pressure, urine involuntary discharge or leakage.
2. Urge incontinence: urine is discharged rapidly after the occurrence of sudden and strong urination. When this happens it is often too late to go to the toilet already wetting the pants. Patients may wake up several times during the night due to this strong urge to urinate.
3.Mixed incontinence: Patients have both stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
4.Overflow incontinence: It occurs when the bladder cannot be completely emptied and may be caused by neurological disorders or urethral obstruction, which prevents the discharge of urine.
Second, what is stress incontinence?
Stress urinary incontinence, also known as SUI, is a sudden, involuntary urination that occurs during normal daily activities. You may have SUI if you experience urine discharge while performing the following activities.
Coughing and sneezing or laughing.
During walking movements or lifting heavy objects.
When standing up from a sitting or lying position.
This means that any movement that puts pressure on the bladder can cause urine to flow out of the urethra by opening it in patients with stress urinary incontinence.
Third, what are the causes of stress urinary incontinence?
Just as people in older men experience nocturnal urinary frequency as part of natural aging, the belief that older women experience urinary incontinence as part of such a process is actually a misunderstanding of the disease. sUI is not part of normal aging, it is most commonly caused by weakening of the support of the urethra by the muscles beneath the urethra and the vaginal connective tissue. the following are the main causes of weakened urethral support.
1, Pregnancy and childbirth: especially multiple births.
2, Long-term heavy physical labor.
3. Menopause or estrogen deficiency.
4, obesity.
Fourth, how to know whether you suffer from stress urinary incontinence?
You can determine whether you are suffering from stress incontinence by taking the following self-tests.
1.Do you experience involuntary and sudden loss of urinary control when laughing, sneezing, coughing or exercising?
2.Do you need to wear pads to absorb the leaking urine?
3.Do you reduce or avoid some activities to prevent urine leakage?
4.When you are planning to go out for practice, hiking or attending certain occasions, does the availability of restrooms affect your decision?
If you answered “yes” to even one of these questions, you may have stress urinary incontinence and should seek professional advice.
V. How is stress incontinence diagnosed?
SUI is diagnosed based on the symptoms described by the patient to the doctor and a thorough examination of your pelvic support. The doctor assesses the function of the patient’s bladder and urethra by performing a specialized cystoscopy and urodynamic examination.
VI. What is the treatment for stress urinary incontinence?
Stress urinary incontinence is treatable at any age. However, not all modalities will work for every person or every type of incontinence. For SUI, doctors will offer different treatments for each depending on the condition.
(i) Conservative treatment.
1, pelvic floor muscle training:: For women with SUI, the first line of treatment is usually muscle rehabilitation to help strengthen the pelvic floor muscle force. This method is convenient, easy to implement, effective and suitable for all types of stress urinary incontinence. This is done by continuously contracting the pelvic floor muscles (lifting movement) for 2 to 6 seconds, releasing to rest for 2 to 6 seconds, and so on for 10 to 15 repetitions. Training 3 to 8 times a day for more than 8 weeks or longer.
2, weight loss: obese women suffering from stress urinary incontinence, reduce body weight by 5% to 8%, the number of urinary incontinence will be reduced by more than 50%.
3, quit smoking and change diet: there is evidence that smoking increases the occurrence of stress urinary incontinence. Reduce the intake of alcohol and caffeine can help treat stress incontinence.
4, electrical stimulation therapy: repeated stimulation of the pelvic floor muscles with electric current to increase the contraction of the pelvic floor muscles to achieve the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.
(B) Minimally invasive surgery TVT (tension-free midurethral sling)
The TVT procedure is based on the theory of midurethral hammock and uses a strip of mesh made of permanent material to provide support for the urethra so that the urethra begins to remain closed at the appropriate time and involuntary leakage is avoided. It is a minimally invasive, highly effective procedure and is the standard of care for SUI today.