Leaking urine is common, and there are ways to cope with light bladder leakage. Maybe you’re on a jog or simply sneezing, and you feel a small amount of urine dribble out; you can’t stop it. What’s happening? After all, you’ve only had one vaginal birth! You might be asking yourself, “Should I be leaking urine at such a young age?” The truth is light bladder leakage can happen at any age.
Light bladder leakage is urine loss you can’t control. 1 in 4 women experience it. Don’t ever be embarrassed by light bladder leakage—it’s common.
Stress incontinence is leaking urine when there’s pressure on your bladder, like with coughing, running, jumping, or sneezing.
Urge incontinence is the frequent, sudden need to pee that often causes bladder contractions and leaking small or moderate amounts of urine. Caffeine, alcohol, drinking too much water, medications like diuretics (water pills), or neurological conditions (affecting the brain, spinal cord or nerves) can irritate your bladder, leading to urge incontinence.
Pelvic Floor Strength
During a pelvic exam, your health care provider may ask you to squeeze your pelvic floor muscles—they want to check how much your muscles resist stretching. Your pelvic floor is made up of the muscles and tissues that support your bladder, bowel (large intestine), vagina and uterus, and they assist with having sex. The strength of the muscles in this area give you control over when to release urine, pass gas, or poop. Pelvic floor muscles also protect your internal organs when you’re lifting objects or coughing.
Pelvic floor muscles can weaken because of childbirth, surgery, heavy lifting, constipation, hormone changes during menopause, and conditions like diabetes.
You can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles with exercises to maintain good muscle tone, which is critical to preventing or improving bladder leakage. The goal is for you to be able to squeeze and relax your pelvic floor muscles automatically.
According to the Mayo Clinic, perfecting pelvic floor exercises is key to making bladder leakage a thing of the past.
- Create reminders to do these exercises daily
- Do a set at a red traffic light or during a commercial on YouTube
At first, squeezing these muscles may feel odd, but you’ll get used to it.
Pelvic Floor Power
If you’re doing pelvic floor exercises correctly, no one will know. Make it your secret exercise!
- Find the right muscles. To find your pelvic floor muscles, stop peeing midstream. If you succeed, you’ve got the right muscles. Once you’ve identified your pelvic floor muscles, you can do the exercises in any position, although you might find it easiest to do them lying down at first.
- Perfect your technique. Tighten your pelvic floor muscles, hold the contraction for 5 seconds, and then relax for 5 seconds. Try it 4 or 5 times in a row. Work up to keeping the muscles contracted for 10 seconds at a time, relaxing for 10 seconds between contractions.
- Repeat. Avoid holding your breath. Instead, breathe freely during the exercises. Aim for at least 3 sets of 10 repetitions a day.
Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise Benefits
Once you’ve strengthened your pelvic floor muscles, you likely notice
- Improved control over your bladder and bowels
- Improved sex
- Confidence in your social interactions
- Smoother recovery from giving birth or surgery
Make sure that you’re training the correct pelvic floor muscles. Talk to your health care provider about the areas of concern, if the strength training is not improving how you feel, or if you begin to experience additional symptoms.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Reflux in Pregnancy
