Attention ladies: Are you avoiding star jumps, skipping, box jumps or even long runs for fear that you may wet your pants?
During exercise are you unsure if what you are feeling is sweat or something more?
Do you avoid jumping on the trampoline or cross your legs if you cough or sneeze? If this is you, you are not alone…
Urine leakage during high intensity exercise or with coughing, sneezing and laughing is known as Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) and no, it’s not related to your concerns about the corona virus nor your nasty boss!
Stress urinary incontinence is urine leakage when pressure is placed on the bladder by your abdominal contents.
Activities such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, pushing, bending, lifting and jumping causes the abdominal contents to push down onto the bladder.
This pressure is usually counteracted by the pelvic floor muscles and the urethral sphincter (valve), ensuring urine does not escape unwanted.
If the muscles are weak or too tight, or the sphincter is not functioning correctly a few drops of urine may escape when one engages in these activities.
SUI is a common complaint, The American Family Physician journal states that 25-45% of women over 30 years battle with it.
Some of the causes of SUI are:
* Pregnancy (causes strain on the tissues within the pelvis)
* Childbirth (can cause damage to the pelvic floor)
* Pelvic surgery
* Hormonal changes associated with menopause (reduced oestrogen can contribute to muscle weakness)
* Obesity
* Genetic predisposition
* Constipation
* Chronic coughing or sneezing
You do not need to accept the occasional bladder leakage as a “normal” part of being a woman or a “normal” pitfall of ageing, in many cases there are things you can do to stop and even prevent stress urinary incontinence.
Chat to your GP, gynaecologist or women’s health physiotherapist should you be experiencing this problem.
Secondly educate yourself and get to know your own body, the muscles within the pelvic area and how they function.
A women’s health physiotherapist is trained to assess the pelvic floor muscles and teach you how to engage these muscles correctly to help prevent urinary leakage.
There is nothing to be ashamed of, rather get help sooner than later!
Salt Rock resident Tarryn Graham has a BSc in Physiotherapy from Stellenbosch University, and has a special interest in and further training in women’s health physiotherapy.
She has 10 years’ experience in women’s health and pelvic floor physiotherapy.
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