Incontinence

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Incontinence

Incontinence


Incontinence is a common and personal condition that involves involuntary leakage of urine or feces from your bladder or bowel, commonly caused by pelvic floor disorder. Incontinence can negatively affect your health and quality of life. Pelvic floor physical therapy is supported by research as being a highly effective treatment for pelvic floor disorders.

The expert pelvic health therapists at FYZICAL El Paso can help you achieve a healthy pelvic floor that will help you enjoy life with good bladder and bowel control.

Types of Incontinence

Urinary incontinence occurs when there is an issue with the muscles or nerves that help your bladder hold or release urine. There are five main types of urinary incontinence: stress, urge, mixed, overflow, and functional.
  • Stress — activities that put stress on your bladder, such as coughing and sneezing, result in leaking urine.
  • Urge (overactive bladder) — after feeling a strong, sudden urge to urinate, you leak urine.
  • Mixed — this type is more common in women and involves having both stress and urge incontinence at the same time.
  • Overflow — this type is more common in men and involves not being able to empty your bladder completely, leading to urine leakage when it's full.
  • Functional — involves having a medical condition that makes it difficult to get to the bathroom in time.
Bowel incontinence occurs when you’re unable to control your bowel movements, causing you to leak liquid or solid stool.

Benefits of Pelvic Floor Therapy for Incontinence

Pelvic floor physical therapy helps to strengthen or relax the muscles of your pelvic floor, which helps to improve bladder and bowel control. Pelvic floor physical therapy may also help to relieve the pain and discomfort associated with irritation or infection in the genital or anal area. Pelvic floor therapy also helps to increase your confidence, mobility, and independence. All of these benefits lead to an enhanced quality of life and allow you to perform your daily activities without worrying about embarrassing leaking accidents.

If you or a loved one are suffering from incontinence, call FYZICAL El Paso today to learn more about our pelvic floor physical therapy program.

Symptoms of Incontinence

Symptoms of incontinence vary depending on the type and severity of the disorder. Urinary symptoms include urinary incontinence (leaking urine), urinary urgency (strong urge to urinate), urinary frequency (urinating more often than normal), nocturia (waking more than once during sleep by the need to urinate), or difficulty emptying your bladder.

Bowel symptoms include leaking liquid or solid stool and having bowel problems such as constipation, diarrhea, gas, or bloating.

Urinary and bowel incontinence can cause wetting or soiling accidents during sleep and pain, discomfort, irritation, or infection in the genital or anal area.