Incontinence Types

Determining your incontinence type will also assist you when seeking help from your doctor or health care professional. Talk with them openly about the best way to manage your type of light urinary leakage. They can help determine the cause and advise steps to control and improve your condition. There are a few different types of incontinence.

Stress Incontinence

Women with stress incontinence may experience leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising, lifting and performing other kinds of strenuous activity. Childbirth and some surgeries can weaken the pelvic floor (the muscles under the bladder) allowing light urine to leak when the abdomen is under stress. Younger women often experience this type of incontinence.

Stress incontinence is usually caused by having a weak sphincter mechanism. The muscles of the pelvic floor and the sphincter muscle are unable to keep the bladder outlet tube (urethra) closed during straining activities that increase pressure inside the abdomen.

Urge Incontinence

Women with urge incontinence may lose large amounts of light urine . There’s a feeling of not being able to reach the toilet fast enough. Urge incontinence is usually caused by having an ‘overactive bladder’, one that contracts before you give it permission to.

Many women experience urge incontinence due to infections that irritate the bladder or the urethra, or cause muscle spasms which force the light urine out of the bladder. Constipation can also cause urge incontinence through the loss of muscle control. A stroke, spinal cord injury, dementia or diseases that affect the nervous system, such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis can bring it on too.

Mixed Incontinence

It is not unusual to experience both symptoms of stress incontinence and urge incontinence at the same time. The causes of the two forms may or may not be related and should be evaluated separately.

Overflow Incontinence

Some women either do not get the urge to urinate or have a blockage in the urethra (the tube that passes from the bladder out of the body). In both of these instances, the bladder never completely empties, and when it overfills, excess light urine is forced out. Nervous system disorders and spinal cord injuries are frequent causes of overflow incontinence.

Medication-Related Incontinence

Some medications may cause lack of bladder control by relaxing muscles or by blocking signals sent from a full bladder to the brain. In these instances, your doctor may change your medications to eliminate the side effects. Using Poise^® Products can help minimise the problem until you are taken off the medication.

Always see your health professional or doctor for more information on types of incontinence.

Also see our Regain Bladder Control section for more information on bladder management and bladder training options.