Female Urinary Incontinence

Women can experience urinary incontinence (UI) at any age. If you’re a woman, the following statistics will NOT surprise you:

• Between the ages of 18 and 44, approximately 24% of women experience incontinence.
• For women over age 60, approximately 23% deal with incontinence
• Fully half of nursing home residents have urinary incontinence.
• This translates into some 17 million women combined who have urinary incontinence.

There are MANY causes and variations in the symptoms of incontinence (stress, urge, overflow, mixed, functional, gross total) and it is very important to see an uro-gynecologist or urologist that specializes in female incontinence issues to best address these issues. Some of the symptoms include:

• Loss of urine when you exert pressure or stress on your bladder by coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising or lifting something heavy.
• A sudden, intense urge to urinate, followed by an involuntary loss of urine.(Your bladder muscle contracts and may give you a warning of only a few seconds to a minute to reach a toilet.)
• You frequently or constantly dribble urine (a sign of overflow incontinence, which is an inability to empty your bladder).
• You feel as if you never completely empty your bladder.
• Many older adults, especially people in nursing homes, experience incontinence simply because a physical or mental impairment keeps them from making it to the toilet in time.

This is but a limited description of some of the symptoms that are classed as female urinary incontinence. If you would like to learn more, we would be happy to email you a copy of Dr. Benjamin’s Guide to Female Urinary Incontinence which explains the different types of female urinary incontinence.

Download Female Urinary Incontinence Guide