Treatment of urinary incontinence in women

Treating female urinary incontinence is an unbearable fact for women. Every time they drink some water or nothing at all, they can’t help but want to urinate. Urinary incontinence is affected by many factors. We should have a correct understanding of this disease, find out the causes of urinary incontinence, and take reasonable methods to treat it, instead of rushing to seek medical treatment, which will waste time and money and not be worth the cost. Early treatment is far more effective than late treatment, and people will not suffer so much loss and will save money.

Female urinary incontinence has a very high treatment and surgery rate in Western countries, but the treatment rate in my country is relatively low. This is directly related to some incorrect traditional concepts of Chinese women: most people believe that urinary incontinence is a natural phenomenon that occurs with age, and that occasional small amounts of urine leakage are not worth going to the hospital for treatment, or they endure the pain of urine leakage for years in silence due to financial problems. Some people even think that urinary incontinence is related to excessive sexual activity, and are afraid of being laughed at and are ashamed to talk about it. However, more friends want to get treatment but don’t know which department to go to, let alone how to get treatment. As a result, they try all kinds of medical treatments, but have seen no effect after more than ten years of treatment.

In fact, as long as the diagnosis is clear and the treatment is appropriate, urinary incontinence is a disease that can be treated and recovered.

Urinary incontinence is a medical condition that can be treated. Experts say that urinary incontinence can also be improved through behavioral training, assistive devices or medications. Whether surgery is needed depends on the severity of the individual's condition and the specific type of urinary incontinence. For example, if neurourinary bladder is not diagnosed and treated in time, it is easy to develop uremia, which poses a great threat to life. Therefore, if you have urinary incontinence, you must seek medical attention in time. After a detailed diagnosis and analysis by the doctor, determine what type of urinary incontinence you have. However, if you want to completely cure urinary incontinence, surgery is more thorough.

Tools/Materials Conservative treatment Drug treatment Surgical treatment

Conservative treatment

(1) Pelvic floor muscle training

The preventive and therapeutic effects of pelvic floor muscle training on female stress urinary incontinence have been confirmed by numerous meta-analyses and randomized controlled studies. This method is convenient, easy and effective and is suitable for all types of stress urinary incontinence. The duration of the therapeutic effect after cessation of training is unclear, and long-term randomized controlled studies are lacking.

There is currently no unified training method, but the consensus is that the pelvic floor muscles must reach a considerable amount of training to be effective. You can implement it as follows: continuously contract the pelvic floor muscles (ani levator exercise) for 2 to 6 seconds, relax and rest for 2 to 6 seconds, and repeat this 10 to 15 times. Train 3 to 8 times a day for 8 weeks or longer.

Pelvic floor muscle training can also be performed using special instruments and equipment and through biofeedback. Compared with simple pelvic floor muscle training, biofeedback is more intuitive and easier to master, has better therapeutic effects than simple pelvic floor muscle training, and can maintain a relatively long effective duration.

(2) Weight loss

Obesity is a well-established risk factor for stress urinary incontinence in women. Losing weight can help prevent stress incontinence. For obese women with stress urinary incontinence, if they lose 5% to 10% of their body weight, the frequency of urinary incontinence will be reduced by more than 50%.

(3) Optional

① Quit smoking: The evidence linking smoking and urinary incontinence is still insufficient. There is evidence that smoking can increase the risk of stress urinary incontinence, but there is currently no evidence that quitting smoking can relieve the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence.

② Change eating habits: There is no clear evidence that water intake, caffeine, and alcohol have a clear relationship with the incidence of stress urinary incontinence, but changing eating habits can help treat the degree of stress urinary incontinence.

(4) Electrical stimulation therapy

Principle: ① Electric current repeatedly stimulates the pelvic floor muscles to increase the contraction force of the pelvic floor muscles; ② Feedback inhibits sympathetic nerve reflexes and reduces bladder activity.

Efficacy: There are large differences in reports, and randomized controlled studies with large samples and long-term follow-up are needed.

Side effects: vaginal infection, bleeding, perineum discomfort and rash, etc., which are difficult for some patients to accept.

(5) Magnetic stimulation therapy

Principle: It is basically similar to the principle of electrical stimulation therapy, except that this treatment uses an external magnetic field for stimulation.

Efficacy: It can effectively improve the patient's subjective and objective symptoms. However, the application time is short and large-sample randomized controlled studies are still needed. Side effects: No complications have been reported. Surgical treatment 1 The modified TVT-O minimally invasive sling surgery is based on the TVT sling surgery and was improved and designed by Professor Tong Xiaowen to suit China's national conditions for urinary incontinence. This surgery chooses a safer transobturator membrane route, avoiding the retropubic space route that may damage the bladder, reducing the occurrence of complications such as injury, bleeding and hematoma. Because of its advantages such as simple and safe operation process, short operation time, very few complications, less postoperative pain, quick recovery and obvious therapeutic effect, it has attracted the attention of the international urology and obstetrics and gynecology communities in recent years.

For the treatment of female urinary incontinence, people who suffer from this phenomenon should have a reasonable understanding of the problem. Solving the problem is the key, and they should not choose to give up treatment because of shyness or embarrassment. There are many ways to treat this phenomenon. No matter which one you choose, you should choose the one that suits you. Women need to take good care of themselves, both mentally and physically.