Why Stress Urinary Incontinence Is More Common in Women

A sneeze comes out of nowhere, and you dread the aftermath — that little bit of urine that escapes whenever you sneeze, cough, swing a tennis racket, and even laugh. 

Called stress urinary incontinence (SUI), we assure you that you aren’t alone in this considering that the condition affects 60% of women at some point in their lives.

As specialists in women’s wellness, the all-female healthcare team at Beyond Women’s Care has considerable experience helping women to navigate incontinence issues. 

As part of this effort, we believe that education is important. With that in mind, we take a closer look at why women are more vulnerable to stress urinary incontinence and what solutions we have for helping patients to overcome this serious quality-of-life issue.

Stress incontinence at a glance

There are several types of urinary incontinence, and SUI is among the more common. In simple terms, SUI describes a condition in which pressure on your bladder causes involuntary leakage. 

And this pressure can come from any number of sources, such as:

• Coughing
• Sneezing
• Constipation
• Running and jumping
• Lifting

As we mentioned early, even laughing can place pressure on your bladder and cause leakage with moderate incontinence.

Women and stress urinary incontinence

Women are at least twice as likely as men to develop SUI, and that’s because many of the key risk factors apply to a woman’s reproductive health, such as:

• Pregnancy, which places pressure on your urinary tract and pelvic floor
• Childbirth, which potentially weakens your pelvic floor 
• Menopause, which weakens the pelvic floor

As you can see, the common denominator here is a weakened pelvic floor. This band of tissues plays an important role as it forms a sort of hammock that keeps your pelvic organs in the right positions.

If this floor weakens, the support for your lower urinary tract weakens, and your bladder can even shift downward, which is called pelvic organ prolapse. As a result, you’re less able to control the pressure on your bladder and the ability to stop urine from leaking out.

There are other risk factors for SUI, such as smoking, obesity, and chronic constipation, but a woman’s reproductive health is certainly the leading driver.

Gaining back control when you have SUI

Whether you’re struggling with post-partum SUI, postmenopausal SUI, or SUI for other reasons, we have a number of effective solutions for helping you to better control your urinary tract, such as:

Pelvic floor exercises

At the top of the treatment list are exercises that strengthen your pelvic floor to re-establish support of your bladder. Here’s a great resource for these exercises, which you should perform daily.

Hormone therapies

If your SUI is due to menopause and the loss of hormones, topical estrogen therapies are a great way to strengthen vaginal muscles and tissues.

Pessary support

If bladder prolapse is causing your SUI, we can outfit you with a pessary — a small device that holds your bladder in position.

Urethral injections

We can inject a bulking agent into the sphincter that controls the flow of urine out of your bladder from better control.

In extreme cases, we can try a surgical solution in which we provide extra support for your bladder with a mesh sling.

You can also make a few lifestyle changes that can help to relieve SUI, and we’re happy to share them with you.

For a more tailored plan of attack for your SUI, we invite you to call our office in Rochester Hills, Michigan, at 248-284-4859 today to set up an appointment, You can also contact us through our website to schedule your visit.