Understanding Urinary Incontinence: Causes, Symptoms and Solutions

Posted: August 3, 2023

Denver, CO

Do you often feel the sudden urge to go? Does your bladder leak when you sneeze or cough? If so, you’re not alone! Urinary incontinence, or involuntary loss of bladder control, is a common condition that affects nearly half of adult women at some point in their lives. Fortunately, this constant nuisance doesn’t have to hinder your quality of life any longer thanks to the simple and clinically proven treatment solutions available at Aguirre Specialty Care!

Understanding your urinary incontinence starts with understanding its causes, so let’s begin:

Causes

As you age, the likelihood of developing urinary incontinence increases, especially after childbirth. There are four types of urinary incontinence that you may experience, each with its own unique cause:

Stress urinary incontinence: Leakage from increased abdominal pressure associated with physical activity — occurs when the urethra does not compress tightly enough.
Urge urinary incontinence: Leakage preceded by a sudden urge to urinate — occurs when the bladder muscle contracts when it’s not supposed to.
Mixed urinary incontinence: A mix of both stress and urge incontinence.
Overflow incontinence: Leakage due to urinary retention — occurs when the bladder is always too full but only a small amount of urine is released.

Symptoms

Common symptoms of urinary incontinence include:
● Bladder leaks every time you cough, sneeze, laugh or exercise
● The sudden, uncontrollable urge to urinate
● Frequent urination
● Waking up to urinate several times during the night
● Urination during sleep

Solutions

Treatment for urinary incontinence can help reduce bladder leakage, strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, reduce urgency, improve sleep by reducing night visits to bathroom, free you from the hassle of hygienic pads, improve your quality of life and boost your confidence. Along with Kegel exercises and pelvic floor therapy, we offer both non-surgical and surgical treatment options for urinary incontinence, which we will recommend depending on which type of incontinence you are diagnosed with.

Non-surgical solutions

FemiLift™ laser resurfacing. Gently resurfaces the entire circumference of the vaginal wall to help tighten the vagina and strengthen the supporting ligaments surrounding the bladder and urethra, improving urinary incontinence.
The O-Shot®. Uses platelet-rich plasma (PRP), a concentrated healing portion of your own blood, to add volume to the clitoris and the anterior vaginal wall and treat urinary incontinence.
The Viveve® Treatment. Tightens the vaginal entrance to treat stress urinary incontinence.
Transurethral Injection with Bulkamid. This is a procedure performed under local anesthesia. It “bulks” up the urethra to increase the closure pressure and thus reduce urinary leakage. A great option for patients who don’t feel they have enough leakage to warrant a sling.
Percutaneous Tibial Neuromodulation (PTNS). This is simple treatment uses a slim needle to stimulate the tibial nerve in the ankle. Once stimulated, the tibial nerve sends impulses to the spine to block signals from the bladder and prevent bladder spasms. PTNS involves a series of 12 weekly treatments, followed by monthly treatments to maintain your improvements.

Surgical solutions

Mid-urethral Sling. The gold-standard surgical solution for stress urinary incontinence. It’s been available in the U.S. for 25 years, since 1998, providing excellent results with minimal complication profile.
InterStim® Therapy. Uses gentle nerve stimulation to correct the bladder/bowel-brain communication pathway and restore bladder and bowel function.
Axonics® System. A sacral neuromodulation treatment that can help you restore normal function of your bladder and bowel.

Let us help you take back control! Discover the best urinary incontinence treatment for you by calling 303-322-0500 or requesting a consultation online today.