Female Urinary Incontinence

Female urinary incontinence is the loss of bladder control. This means you accidentally leak urine when you aren’t going to the bathroom. This condition is common, and you can develop it at any age. But it mainly affects females over age 50.

Types of Female Urinary Incontinence

Some urinary incontinence is temporary. It’s common to leak urine if you’re pregnant or have a urinary tract infection (UTI). However, you can also develop chronic (long-lasting) urinary incontinence.

These chronic conditions include:

• Overflow incontinence: Urine leakage happens when you are not able to completely empty your bladder or your bladder is too full.
• Stress incontinence: Urine leakage occurs with physical activity. This can include coughing, exercising, laughing or sneezing.
• Urge incontinence: Urine leakage happens when you feel the frequent need to urinate.
• Mixed incontinence: You may experience urine leakage from a combination of stress and urge incontinence.
  
  

Symptoms of Female Urinary Incontinence

Female urinary incontinence can be mild or severe. So, it affects everyone differently. Some of the most frequent symptoms include:

• Constantly feeling wet or damp without feeling urine leakage
• Feeling like you can’t completely empty your bladder
• Urgent need to urinate
• Urine leakage due to physical activity or surgery
• Urine leakage that causes embarrassment and prevents activities

These symptoms can also appear with other health conditions. Our urologists can determine if you have additional physical concerns.

Risk Factors for Female Urinary Incontinence

Female urinary incontinence is common. The National Institutes of Health says it affects more than 60% of women. There are a few factors that may increase your risk.

• Age: As you get older, the muscles in and around your bladder get weaker. This makes it harder to control the flow of urine.
• Overweight: Extra weight puts pressure on your bladder and the muscles around it.
• Pregnancy/vaginal delivery: Straining during vaginal birth can weaken your pelvic floor muscles.

At Emory Urology, we are known for our compassionate, patient-centered approach to delivering high-quality care for difficult-to-discuss problems. Our award-winning fellowship-trained specialists provide the most innovative treatments and leading-edge procedures. And we are dedicated to developing the next generation of research-based therapies that will improve the quality of life for our patients.