Loss of bladder control in the elderly can be treated with medical intervention

It is a very common and often debilitating ailment, yet it is hardly taken seriously by people. Despite hampering normal life, Urinary Incontinence or Loss of bladder control that leads to leakage of urine or dribbling is often accepted by the elderly as a part of their ageing process. However, it can be controlled and managed with proper medical intervention that can radically improve the quality of lives of the affected.

Often, embarrassment or a sense of shame prevents people from discussing their urinary problems, but this attitude needs to be changed. Moreover, people need to be made aware that medical intervention and lifestyle changes can help. This was the underlying theme of the informal talk lead by two leading Urologists of Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon, Dr Anurag Khaitan, Senior Consultant, Urology and Dr Sandeep Harkar, Consultant, Urology with patients about urinary problems and their solutions.

People often experience problems with their urinary system but sometimes they ignore them thinking it might be due to inadequate water consumption. Often, they feel uncomfortable talking about it and hope the problem subside on its own. A major urinary issue that people often find it difficult to live with, is loss of bladder control or urinary incontinence. Losing control of your bladder leading to frequent need to urinate can be a devastating condition. It can not only throw your life off track but also cause severe embarrassment. Such patients are often mocked at by people who hardly understand that loss of control over the bladder is a medical problem.

However, due to low levels of awareness, many cases go untreated and many patients keep suffering in silence and embarrassment.

As a matter of fact, the problem of loss of bladder control is more common in women than in men. During pregnancy, when babies push down the bladder and urethra (the tube through which we urinate), this weakens muscles of the pelvic floor and the bladder. Labor can weaken pelvic floor muscles and damage nerves that control the bladder. After menopause too, women experience problems with bladder control.

Urinary incontinence may be of several kinds and different forms of incontinence need different approach to treatment. Urge incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine occurring while suddenly feeling the need or urge to urinate. Stress incontinence is loss of urine that occurs simultaneously with physical activities that increase abdominal pressure like sneezing, coughing or performing exercises. On the other hand Functional incontinence occurs when a person does not recognize the need to go to the toilet in time while Overflow incontinence is when people cannot stop their bladder from dribbling constantly.

In some patients adopting some behavioral changes may help. They involve decreasing your fluid intake to average levels, urinating more frequently to decrease the amount of urine they leak and dietary or medical treatments to help keep regular bowel habits as constipation can worsen the problem. Weight loss has also been shown to help decrease symptoms in overweight people.

Pelvic muscle training exercises,  biofeedback and electrical stimulation as well as medicines can also help.