There are factors that increase a woman's risk for incontinence. One big one is weight, so that extra abdominal pressure on your bladder with abdominal weight is something big that we try to work with our patients of just encouraging them in healthy weight loss programs. Don't have to be super skinny, but just getting off those extra few pounds can really get you a far ways. Another reason why women have a risk of leaking urine is through chronic bearing down and straining. Sometimes you can't help that with your job, you're lifting heavy things throughout the day, you work in a factory, you're moving heavy things, but we try to help our women realize that asking for help is not always bad. If something feels heavy, you can ask for help and help to move.
Number of vaginal births are also a big contributor for urinary incontinence. That pushing, vaginal trauma during delivery can definitely increase your risk. Other things: Diet, artificial sweeteners, that Diet Coke that everyone wants to drink, really can be detrimental to that bladder, cause inflammation, that extra coffee in the afternoon that everyone wants to have can cause that as well. If you're not drinking the right amount of fluids throughout the day, we recommend our patients drink about 50-60 ounces of water a day. If you're having issues with incontinence, it can really decrease your risk of leaking. And if you're leaking at night and getting up a lot at night, stopping to drink fluids about four hours before bedtime really helps with that.
Other factors, things that you can't always help are chronic disease states such as diabetes, chronic back pain, nerve injuries to your back and your spine, those are things that you can't help that you have, but trying to treat those properly and keeping your diabetes well controlled, keeping your A1C down can really help those things as well. Getting off certain medications that can increase your risk of leaking are things as well. There are certain depression medications that can increase your risk, so talking to your doctor about maybe changing medication or seeking counseling and trying to get off a medication can help as well.
