Urinary incontinence, which occurs especially in women for reasons such as advanced age, giving birth many times and excess weight, is both a disease in itself and may also be the sign of an important disease. This problem is seen more often in women than in men, and it also increases with advancing age.
It Affects Quality of Life Negatively
Urinary incontinence, seen in situations such as lifting heavy loads, sneezing and climbing stairs, affects quality of life negatively. Some patients do not encounter the problem of leaking urine while carrying out their daily activities, but problems such as frequent urination and not being able to reach the toilet in time may appear. This problem, which means going to the toilet 10 to 15 times a day and, more importantly, leaking urine, keeps our women away from social life. While difficult and traumatic deliveries increase the risk of urinary incontinence, caesarean and normal deliveries have no significant effect on this problem. However, giving birth many times, assisted delivery and labour lasting longer than normal may invite urinary incontinence.
Excess Weight Is a Risk Factor!
Excess weight comes first among the factors that lead to urinary incontinence. Because with excess weight the pressure inside the abdomen increases, which puts the urinary tract at risk. On this subject, doing regular pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the muscles may be beneficial. Strengthening the muscles has positive effects on the organ that holds the urine. We said that this problem is seen more often in women, but this does not mean that the problem of urinary incontinence is not seen in men. In men, stress-type urinary incontinence is mostly encountered after prostate operations or fractures of the pelvic bone. The problem of urinary incontinence, seen especially in the older age group, must be treated and the quality of life the patient has lost must be regained. For the problem of urinary incontinence, surgical treatments are performed especially for the type linked to weakness of the ligaments at the bladder neck. One of these procedures is the sling operation. The duration of the operation does not exceed 10 to 15 minutes. The patient can be discharged the same day. Sling operations are not applied to every patient; for this operation, the right patient and an experienced physician determine the success of the treatment.