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Different Types of Incontinence
Urinary incontinence is a medical problem that many people suffer. Because of some biological reasons, it is a condition that women experience more often. However, there is not one single solution for everyone that experiences incontinence. Because there are various types of incontinence.
If you need to read about what urinary incontinence is, you can check our article on incontinence definition. In this article, we are looking at these types and possible reasons that are related to these problems. You can read about the common types of incontinence down here.
Types Of Urinary Incontinence
Depending on the symptoms you can recognize some of the types of incontinence. Let’s check the details.
Incontinence Because of Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder is a medical condition that causes incontinence indirectly. So we can consider this condition among the types of incontinence.
An overactive bladder causes şncrease in the frequency of need to urinate. And it can make it harder to hold the urine in for a long time. Therefore it can cause many situations that people couldn’t have access to a restroom in time and have accidents.
Many women experience the symptoms of having an overactive bladder. This problem can make driving a car, long travels, enjoying a movie in a theatre, or any moment that you cannot use a restroom frequently, quite difficult. It can also cause you to get up many times while sleeping and prevent you from getting well-rested.
Stress Incontinence
Stress incontinence is one of the most common types of incontinence. The name of this type comes from physical stress, it is related to changes in the muscle form that is necessary to hold the urine in the bladder.
Stress incontinence can cause accidents while having sudden abdominal movements like laughing, or sneezing. Such sudden movements can cause physical stress on the bladder and push some urine out.
The incontinence problems that are caused by the changes around the bladder are typically considered as the stress type. If the muscles get too weak to seal the urethra, any sudden pressure can cause leakage.
Multiple events in women’s life can cause this incontinence problem, such as giving birth, or pregnancy. During these events, certain muscles around the bladder change and do not work as they should.
Also when the estrogen levels are lower, the muscles around the bladder get weaker too. This is why menopause can cause stress incontinence problems as well. Even before menopause, your estrogen levels drop during a week before your period. So if you already experiencing stress incontinence, it can get worse during this week.
Urge Incontinence
Another common one of the types of incontinence is Urge Incontinence. As the name suggests this type causes difficulties in holding your urine after you get an urge to urinate.
This incontinence type is quite difficult to deal with. It can cause you to urinate unwillingly when you are sleeping, shortly after you have some drinks, or even when you hear some water noises. If you are suffering such incontinence problems, even daily tasks can be challenging. You may have accidents when you are in public. You cannot do your dishes, go near fountains, or do anything that you need to touch running water without risking urinating yourself. Even hearing people in your family having a shower can cause accidents.
This problem is often caused by wrong signals in your nerves. These wrong signals can be caused by severe nerve damage in the brain or spine. Such damage can happen by an injury, a stroke, or a disease. Some diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson are known to have a relation with such incontinence problems. It is also known that some medical problems like diabetes and hyperthyroidism increase the frequency of the urge to urinate, so they make the condition even more challenging.
A Facebook Page About Incontinence: Urinary Incontinence
Functional Incontinence
Functional incontinence is essentially a condition where a person’s functional capabilities are lowered enough to fail using the restroom when they need it.
Some physical disabilities can prevent a person to use a restroom in time. So disabled people, especially when there are no disability-friendly restrooms nearby, can have some accidents before they can use a restroom in time.
Certain mental problems can cause various types of incontinence too. Some of these mental problems can make the person forget about their need to use a restroom to urinate, or they may not be capable to evaluate the urgency and fail to reach a restroom in time. Some mental disabilities may also cause functional incontinence because the person is not capable of using a restroom by themselves.
Functional incontinence is also a problem that elderly people often deal with. Some diseases that can cause different types of incontinence can show themselves more frequently with higher age. But elderly people may experience this problem by various functional incapibilities, like a nervous system disease, dysfunctional muscles, or just getting too weak to go a restroom in time.
If you want to learn more about urinary incontinence and different types of incontinence, you can take a look at our related articles. You can learn about other health issues and tips for them by visiting our Health category.
