Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence — leaking or gushing urine before you reach a toilet — is a distressing condition for men and women. Bellingham Urology Group in Bellingham and Mount Vernon, Washington, specializes in urge, stress, overflow, and mixed forms of incontinence. The board-certified urologists help many patients manage incontinence using conservative methods and perform InterStim® surgery for severe or persistent incontinence. Call Bellingham Urology Group or schedule a consultation online today to learn more about the latest urinary incontinence treatments.

What is urinary incontinence?  

Urinary incontinence is an involuntary urine leakage that can affect people of all ages. Incontinence can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, and often embarrassing. Types of urinary incontinence include:

Urge incontinence

Urge incontinence is a sudden, desperate need to urinate that’s often so strong you can’t make it to the bathroom in time. 

Stress incontinence

Stress incontinence primarily affects women, causing urine leakage when you sneeze, cough, laugh, or exercise. 

Overflow incontinence

Overflow incontinence is when your bladder doesn’t empty properly. It most often affects men. 

You could also suffer from mixed incontinence, where you have a combination of one or more types.

Bellingham Urology Group treats all forms of incontinence in men, women, and children. The experienced urologists provide caring, discreet treatments that address the underlying causes of incontinence and control your symptoms.

What causes urinary incontinence?

The most likely cause of urinary incontinence in men is prostate enlargement. The prostate gland, which produces seminal fluid, sits beneath your bladder. If it gets bigger, it can constrict the urethra, a tube that carries urine from your bladder to your penis when you urinate.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common cause of prostate enlargement, but prostate cancer can cause similar symptoms.  

Women develop urinary incontinence around twice as often as men. Causes include:

• Pregnancy
• Childbirth
• Menopause
• Female pelvic structure 
• Overactive bladder

Overactive bladder occurs when nerves send signals to your bladder at the wrong time, making the muscles squeeze without warning. This leads to increased urination frequency and urgency, urge incontinence, and nocturia (waking at least twice a night to urinate). 

How is urinary incontinence treated?

Treatments for urinary incontinence vary, depending on the type of incontinence and its cause. Options Bellingham Urology Group offers include:

Behavioral therapy

Behavioral therapy involves learning bladder retraining exercises.

Pelvic floor therapy

The female pelvic floor — a network of muscles that supports the pelvic organs — often weakens with age and childbirth. Physical therapy techniques can strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and improve urinary control.

Medication 

You might need medicines to relax your bladder.

Injections

Your urologist may inject substances like collagen to firm up your pelvic floor or onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) into the bladder muscle to help relax the urgency sensations.

Surgery

Another option is InterStim surgery. This involves having an electrode implanted next to the sacral nerves in your lower back to help you regain bladder function control.

Call Bellingham Urology Group today or book an appointment online to find a solution for your urinary incontinence.