Urinary Incontinence in Women

Urinary incontinence is among the problems that are more common in women than in men and have serious psychological, sexual and social effects. For this reason, urinary incontinence surgeries and medical treatments gain importance. Urinary incontinence surgeries can be performed simultaneously with vaginal aesthetics.

What is urinary incontinence in women?

Urinary incontinence is also referred to as ‘incontinence’ or ‘urinary incontinence’ in medical terminology. It indicates the involuntary escape of urine. There are different types of urinary incontinence such as stress, urge, mixed.

What causes urinary incontinence in women?

It is observed that most of the women who have urinary incontinence problem started after the vaginal delivery. In some, the collagen connective tissue weakens due to age or menopause, and then urinary incontinence is experienced.

Stress Incontinence Urinary Incontinence

The problem of urinary incontinence may occur in many parts of the society, especially in the form of urinary incontinence during coughing, laughing, and lifting heavy loads. The occurrence of involuntary urinary incontinence in this way, that is, due to situations that will cause an increase in intra-abdominal pressure such as coughing and laughing, is called ‘Stress Urinary Incontinence’ (SUI). Urinary incontinence in women is usually of this type, namely stress incontinence.

Especially advanced age, having a vaginal delivery and obesity are increased risk factors for stress incontinence. On the other hand, early menopause, smoking, genetically poor collagen structure, chronic lung diseases such as COPD and asthma also increase the likelihood of stress urinary incontinence.

Surgical methods or non-surgical laser and radiofrequency treatments are generally used in the treatment of SUI.

Urge Incontinence Incontinence

Urge incontinence is the condition that a person cannot reach the toilet after the urine comes. Urine flows uncontrollably before it reaches the toilet. Urge incontinence also negatively affects social life. (Urge- pronounced as ‘Orc’). There is a disorder in the signal pathways coming from the brain rather than the anatomical deformity. This situation, which especially affects social life, causes the problem of not being able to leave the house, being away from people, and loneliness. Urge type incontinence is treated medically.

Both types of incontinence both affect the person psychologically and cause the person to feel bad about their partner sexually.

Mixed urinary incontinence Urinary Incontinence

In mixed type urinary incontinence, both stress and urge incontinence are combined. It is also known as mixed type incontinence. The type and severity of incontinence is determined by urodynamic tests and the treatment method is decided.

In studies, stress incontinence was found in 48% of patients with urinary incontinence, urge incontinence in 17%, and mixed incontinence in 34%. The other part is the rarer types of incontinence.

Coital Incontinence Urinary Incontinence

Coital incontinence is a problem of urinary incontinence during sexual intercourse (coit). It can be seen especially in patients who have given vaginal birth and who are in advanced age. Women who complain of urinary incontinence during intercourse are both ashamed of their husbands and cannot feel comfortable in the relationship because of the concern that they may leak urine at any time during intercourse. This leads to serious pleasure and orgasm problems.

After a while, sexual reluctance is almost inevitable. For this reason, treatment for the underlying cause is very important in terms of both the physical health and sexual life of the person.

Urinary Incontinence Treatment in Women

First of all, anamnesis is taken from the patient who applied with urinary incontinence problem; The patient’s complaints are listened in detail, with some specific questions, it is tried to understand what type of urinary incontinence is. There are also some special scales that can be done to determine to what extent the problem of urinary incontinence affects the social and sexual life of the person.

Following the anamnesis, gynecological examination is started. During the examination, it is determined by inspection (looking) and some maneuvers (pushing the patient, coughing) whether the patient has sagging of the urinary bladder and whether there is leakage of urine in cases that increase intra-abdominal pressure.

For example; Stress type incontinence is predominant in a patient who leaks urine gushing out while coughing. At the end of the anamnesis and examination, the type and degree of urinary incontinence in the patient is usually determined. In some patients, more detailed information about urinary incontinence can be obtained with some special tests (uroflowmeter, etc.). These types of tests are especially important in urge and mixed type incontinences.

After making the diagnosis, the patient is discussed with the treatment options. The appropriate treatment option varies according to the type of incontinence.

Today, there are many new generation drugs developed for urinary incontinence; however, these drugs are generally not successful in stress incontinence. Basis of stress incontinence