How to Help Bladder Leaks

Upto 70% of Women Experience Bladder Leaks!

Bladder leakage happens to people of all ages and genders.  Often our patients are surprised to hear that urinary incontinence in women, across the lifespan ranges from 5-70% of people, with more than 40% of women over 70 years old experiencing bladder leaks.  Most studies of women having urinary incontinence report incidence rates of 25-40%.  Unfortunately, incontinence is a risk factor for a senior woman moving into a nursing home.  Therefore, if you are experiencing bladder leaks at a younger age, please be proactive and get this treated before the problem advances with age.   Given the statistics, it is likely that several of your friends or family members also struggle with bladder leaks and are looking for how to help their bladder leaks.  If you would like to work with a skilled, specialist physical therapist who helps all adults struggling with bladder leaks, call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.

There are many risk factors for experiencing bladder leaks.   Most are modifiable and treatable with physical therapy.

The risk factors for urinary incontinence vary across the lifespan.   In general, it is well-known that women experience a higher risk factor for bladder leakage due to our anatomy combined with life events such as pregnancy that cause more stress and strain on our bladder control system.  Additionally, research has found that adolescent girls who participate in sports with running, jumping or cutting moves, such as gymnastics, dance, soccer and volleyball, also often experience urinary leakage.  Our PTs can help this!  Bladder leakage is not inevitable in women.  In fact, all bladder leakage is considered a medical issue and should be properly treated as soon as you notice this happening.

Because bladder leakage tends to increase across a woman’s lifespan, it is important to be proactive, at all ages, to optimize your bladder control because to avoid bladder leaks becoming worse over time.

Often our patients have tried everything on their own that they can think of to help their bladder leakage, yet they still struggle with frustrating leakage. Working with our properly trained and specialist physical therapists takes the guesswork out of how to help your bladder leakage.  We customize your treatments to exactly what we find with your body.  Our comprehensive approach is designed to give you lasting relief and results so you can be active, healthy and can resolve your bladder leakage. If you may be interested in learning more about how our PTs help bladder leakage, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here to ask us a question and we will be in touch with you.

There are actually several types of urinary incontinence.  In women, Stress Urinary Incontinence is the most prevalent type of bladder leakage.

Stress incontinence occurs when you leak urine unexpectedly while talking, laughing, sneezing, coughing, jumping or doing other activities that increase the pressure inside your abdomen.

With stress incontinence, your bladder control system is literally overwhelmed and unable to keep your urine inside your body when you are completing movements or activities that place pressure on the pelvic floor, urethra and bladder.

Common culprits of stress incontinence include laughing, coughing and sneezing.  But, we also treat people who experience stress incontinence with lesser known activities, such as walking downhill or singing.   Our PTs thoroughly evaluate every person we help who has bladder leaks.   By completing this comprehensive assessment, that might look at your ribcage, spine, posture, breathing, pelvic floor, hips, abdominals, movement patterns and deep core, we are able to custom design a pelvic floor and bladder control rehabilitation program that helps your bladder leaks.

If you would like to learn more about how to work with our PTs so you can experience relief from your stress incontinence, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

Urge incontinence is a type of bladder leakage when your bladder spasms so much that you lose urine because you cannot get to the bathroom quickly enough.  With urge incontinence that are so many things that can be done in physical therapy and at home to help your bladder leaks.   In many cases our licensed physical therapists find a constellation of problems that we can treat that are contributing to the bladder spasms, urgency and bladder leakage.   For example, if a person has unhappy nerves going to the bladder or pelvic floor muscles, bladder leakage can occur.  Our PTs check every person for this type of issue and will give our patients hands-on treatments as well as rehabilitative exercises and sometimes modalities, like a stimulation machine, to help calm the nerves, support the bladder, restore bladder control, enhance pelvic floor and core muscle strength and address other underlying contributors to your overactive bladder (such as constipation, for example).  For more information about our physical therapy for overactive bladder, urge incontinence or bladder leaks, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

Have you heard of insensible incontinence?  We help bladder leaks that occur out of the blue and you don’t even know they are happening.

Insensible incontinence occurs when a person finds themselves wet in their underwear but they didn’t know this was happening.  It is thought that insensible incontinence may be a combination of both urge incontinence and stress incontinence. But, sometimes insensible incontinence may also be overflow incontinence or incontinence related to incomplete emptying of bladder, constipation or other treatable issues.   Working with a specialist physical therapist, like we have here at Purple Mountain PT, you will receive a customized treatment program that helps your bladder leakage.  For more information, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

Our comprehensive approach to helping your bladder leakage includes a thorough assessment and treatment of what is going on with your bladder and provides specialized physical therapy help for bladder leakage, even when it is insensible.

With true Mixed Incontinence, a person is experiencing bladder leakage that is a combination of both stress incontinence and urge incontinence.

It is not uncommon for someone to experience a combination of both stress incontinence and urge incontinence.  When you have two reasons for your incontinence, it is called mixed incontinence.  In this case, your physical therapy program will include treatments to address all causes of your bladder leakage.  Because our PTs take a comprehensive, whole person approach, our patients tell us that working with us has been the most beneficial thing they have experienced.   Mixed incontinence is very common amongst our patients and also very treatable.

We love to partner with you to help you resolve bladder leaks.  If you have questions about our physical therapy for bladder leaks, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here. 

Could you be leaking urine because your bladder is too full?

Yes, overflow incontinence is a type of leakage that happens when your bladder is so full that is is over stretched and unable to function well. The bladder is a muscle and this muscle should be able to relax to hold your urine and contract to allow you to urinate. With overflow incontinence there are problems with your bladder and often your whole bladder control system. In physical therapy we help you retrain your bladder, pelvic floor and other aspects of your body so you can help your overflow leaks.  To learn more, contact us here.

Instrinsic sphincter deficiency is another cause of bladder leakage that our PT can help

Your urethra provides a passageway for urine to exit your body.  The urethra sphincter has muscles and sometimes these muscles are deficient, causing bladder leakage.  With weakness of the urethra muscles, a physician may label you as having intrinsic sphincter deficiency.  Our PTs typically identify numerous additional issues going on, such as pelvic floor dysfunction, that are also causing bladder leaks.  Each person we help who has bladder leaks receives a customized physical therapy rehabilitation program that includes hands-on manual therapies, corrective exercises, pelvic floor retraining, bladder and sphincter control methods, education and instruction in implementing better bladder habits and postural and spine therapy.  When we combine these things for your bladder leaks, you will find that you finally experience some relief.

Don’t get frustrated, get proactive! There is help.  To learn more about working with our specialist bladder physical therapists, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

Because our PTs specialize in helping bladder leakage in adults and children, we are able to customize our treatment approach to each person’s specific findings.  If you are asking yourself why you are leaking urine, our PTs will help bring some clarity to your situation and can provide you a specific rehabilitation program to help your bladder leaks.

Regardless of what type of urinary incontinence you have, usually there is an underlying pelvic floor dysfuction going on.

The pelvic floor muscles form a hammock at the base of your pelvis, supporting your urethra and bladder and helping to maintain bladder control.  We find that the pelvic floor muscles can be weak, stiff, slow to react, unable to lengthen, unable to tighten, working paradoxically (instead of lifting and holding in urine, they actually lower and allow urine to leak).   Our detailed assessment of each person’s pelvic floor muscles gives you insight into your body and how you can help your bladder leakage.  Often times the pelvic floor muscles may be strong, but lack proper coordination.  Retraining these muscles is our specialty.  To learn more about how to retrain your pelvic floor muscles, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

To truly help your bladder leakage, in PT we need to treat your entire system!

Our PTs will work with you to improve your posture, because things like slouching can alter the angle of your pelvis, rendering it more easy to lose urine.  We will also assess and treat your ribcage because how your breathe and the alignment between your ribcage and your pelvis both influence bladder control. We will assess and treat and retrain your deep core abdominal muscles.  Often we find that our patients have too much activity in their abdominal obliques and deficiency in their deep lower abdominals.  This is unfortunate, because this muscle imbalance places more strain on your bladder control system and also alters the pelvic floor muscle activity.  Additionally, our PTs will assess and treat your low back, because the low back and pelvic floor are partners together and when one is off, the other is problematic.  Our patients are also assessed for any constipation or bowel problems, because the bladder and bowels are communicating with each other and a problem with bowels can worsen bladder control.  These are a snippet of what we offer our patients.  We haven’t even touched on the hands-on treatments we provide that help optimize bladder function, fascia, muscles and nerves.  By working with our PTs you are assured that you will receive a comprehensive approach to optimize your bladder control and help cease all bladder leaks.  To learn more about our physical therapy evaluation for bladder leaks, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

We also take into consideration your life events that may have contributed to your bladder leaks.

Have you had a pregnancy or childbirth?  Our pregnancy and postpartum physical therapy program will address the unique needs of moms and moms-to-be

Pregnancy can increase your risk of pelvic floor dysfunction becuase your muscles experience more pressure, weight and changes to the position of your pelvis.  Therefore, the pregnancy itself (not only the labor and delivery) is a risk factor for urinary incontinence.  The pelvic floor muscles are made to be able to birth a baby vaginally, but this process does stretch them over 300%!  Add in the fact that pregnancy alters your abdominal wall, posture, rib cage, breathing and hormones and you have a perfect storm for creating bladder leaks in some pregnant women.   When postpartum all of these muscles, joints and nerves need to come back together to support your bladder effectively.  Working with our PTs, in our pregnancy and postpartum recovery program, gives you the confidence you need to feel strong and to resolve any bladder leakage.  If you are pregnant or postpartum and are experiencing bladder leakage, back pain, diastasis recti abdominis, pain or other concerns, working with our specialist physical therapists will provide your relief from your symptoms.  To learn more, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

• Solving bladder leakage on your own often is not effective, which is why most of our patients deal with leakage for years.  Our best tip is to work with a professional physical therapist who specializes in bladder leakage.

This is because figuring out, by yourself, what is going on does not work and what you try at home may actually exacerbate the leakage.  Most of our patients already tried a numerous things to help their leakage that did not work.  It is common that women have implemented self-help efforts like changing drinking habits, kegels, avoiding jumping and wearing pads, but the urinary leakage persists.  Some of the things they have tried have worsened their bladder leakage (I’m talking to your 1000 Kegels a day!).  We suggest that you take the guesswork out of your urinary leakage and reach out to us at (616) 516-4334 to chat or ask us a question here and we will be in touch.

Each person is different, as to what caused leakage.  Sometimes it is certain activities, other times it is situations (like being scared) or alcohol or constipation.  We suggest you pay attention to your bladder leakage circumstances and identify some causes.  Once you know the causes, can you modify some of these?   Our PTs help you determine your causes and develop an action plan for how you can reduce your risk for bladder leakage, while you build up your bladder control muscles.  If you are interested in learning more, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here. 

• Modify the things that contribute to your bladder leakage

Sometimes bladder leakage occurs when running downhill, so can you alter your ribcage and strides to reduce the ground impact forces?   For women who run, sometimes changing your cadence helps reduce bladder leakage.   Sometimes bladder leakage is worsened if you are constipated. Can you work on your diet and defecation habits to optimize them?  The point is that you need to know what is triggering your leakage and make modifications to these things to see if they help!  Our PTs are specialists at rehabilitating bladder leakage, so if you can’t figure it out how to help yourself, let us help you!  Call us at (616) 516-4334 to speak with a knowledgable team member or contact us here and we will be in touch.

Some people are simply drinking too much water.   Or, sometimes they are pounding a huge glass of water and this simply is too much volume at one time, even though the total amount of water in your daily intake may be fine.  Other people are not drinking enough water, which can lead to altered bladder storage or irritation of the lining of your bladder.   Try to pay attention to what you drink, how quickly you drink it, what volume it is and how your bladder reacts.  Make changes according to what you notice!

Learn when it happens, what was going on before and after it happened, pay attention to the circumstances.  Were you stressed out?  The bladder is reactive to stress, perhaps you need to improve this.  Were you having constipation? The bladder is reactive to the bowel, maybe you need to improve your bowels to help your bladder leakage. By tracking your bladder leakage, you will gain clarity on when this happens and may identify things within your control that you can improve.

Research has found that the glutes tend to be weaker in people who have problems with bladder control. This includes urinary urgency and frequency issues.  Also, your pelvic floor muscles work as a system, in coordination with your abdominals, low back and hips. Therefore, if you are struggling with bladder leaks, we suggest you start strengthening these muscles and, while you are at it, work on your flexiblity.  Our PTs check every patient for muscle imbalances and weaknessess. We look at your movement patterns, hip mobility and posture.  We also asses your pelvic floor muscles and abdominal wall.  We put all of this information together and develop a customized treatment program for your body.  We are specialist bladder and pelvic health PTs who use hands-on treatments, therapeutic exercises, modalities, patient education, postural correction and other interventions to help you control your bladder. If this sounds appealing to you, but you have questions, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.  

References:

Chong EC, Khan AA, Anger JT. The financial burden of stress urinary incontinence among women in the United States. Curr Urol Rep. 2011; 12(5): 358–362.

Gonzales, Alicia L., et al. “Prevalence and treatment of postpartum stress urinary incontinence: a systematic review.” Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery 27.1 (2021): e139-e145.

Hagan KA, Erekson E, Austin A, et al. Incontinence in women. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2018; 218(5): 502.e1–502.e8.

Haylen BT, De Ridder D, Freeman RM, et al. An International Urogynecological Association/International Continence Society Joint Report on the terminology for female pelvic floor dysfunction. Neurourol Urodyn. 2010; 29: 4–20.

Markland AD, Richter HE, Fwu C-W, Eggers P, Kusek JW. Prevalence and trends of urinary incontinence in adults in the United States, 2001 to 2008. J Urol. 2011; 186(2): 589–593.

McKinney, Jessica L., et al. “Retrospective claims analysis of physical therapy utilization among women with stress or mixed urinary incontinence.” Neurourology and Urodynamics 41.4 (2022): 918-925.

I. Milsom & M. Gyhagen (2019) The prevalence of urinary incontinence, Climacteric, 22:3, 217-222.

Scott, K.M., Gosai, E., Bradley, M.H. et al. Individualized pelvic physical therapy for the treatment of post-prostatectomy stress urinary incontinence and pelvic pain. Int Urol Nephrol 52, 655–659 (2020)

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