Let’s Talk About Peeing Your Pants
Do you experience urgency incontinence or stress incontinence? Leaking urine may be common but it is not normal. Here are a few things to know when it comes to peeing, leaking and other things that no one talks about.
What is normal?
Peeing, aka voiding, is something we all do everyday. But how many times per day is considered normal?
In a 24 hour period 5-8 voids is considered normal which is about every 2-4 hours.
Things that can affect this:
Dehydration:
If you are not drinking enough water then you won't be urinating as much. This also causes a more concentrated urine which can be irritating to the bladder.
Alcohol, caffeine and carbonated drinks
These are fluids that can be irritants to the bladder and can have an affect on how often you pee
Habitual holding
If you hold your urine for too long this can cause over stretching of the bladder and possibly making it harder to contract over time.
“Just in case” peeing
Meaning: going to the bathroom when you don’t actually have to go. This can train your bladder and brain to hold less urine over time.
This is not an exhaustive list, as there can certainly be other things that can affect the amount you urinate each day.
If you are under the normal range you may be dehydrated or habitually holding for too long. If you are above the normal range you may be drinking too much of the bladder irritants or training your bladder for just in case peeing. Both can ultimately cause problems with your bladder or pelvic floor over time.
Reflection: Do any of these bladder habits sound like you?
Urgency Incontinence
What’s that?
Urgency is when all of a sudden you have to pee.. like NOW.. and you experience leakage and feel like you can’t hold it
This can be due to lack of control of the bladder muscle or it is overactive (OAB)
Triggers for this include: when you put the key in the door when getting home, the urge with running water, or leakage on your way to the bathroom
It can happen due to over activity of the pelvic floor
This is something that can improve with bladder retraining and pelvic floor training. Some of the bladder retraining techniques include those mentioned above.
Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI)
SUI is when you pee a little (or a lot) with jumping, coughing, exercise, sneezing, lifting, etc.
This can happen for a variety of reasons:
Intrinsic Sphincter Deficiency (ISD): this is when there is not enough resting closure at the urethra to keep urine in. This can happen after a pelvic surgery (changes in blood flow, nerve damage and/or scarring)
Hypermobility: the bladder and urethra can move to a non-optimal position for compressing the urethra (holding pee in)
Postpartum: after the pelvic floor has been stretched from birth this can cause weakness in the pelvic floor and lead to leaking
Pelvic floor weakness: this can happen - if we don’t use it we lose it!
The Good News
Though a lot of these issues may be common they are not normal and there are a lot of different lifestyle modifications and therapies that can help improve symptoms of leakage.
Depending on your problem, it may be beneficial to work with a pelvic floor physical therapist to assess your pelvic floor to see if it is doing what it should be. Learning to talk with your doctor about these symptoms is important as well as advocating for yourself to get the help you need.
Talk to your doctor about pelvic floor physical therapy if you experience these symptoms, even if it is minor because it may only get worse if you are not doing anything about it.
Reflection: Do I experience any of these symptoms above? Are these symptoms starting to dictate my days? What can I do to start getting the help I need?
