Types Of Urinary Incontinence
TYPES OF URINARY INCONTINENCE
Have you ever been woken in the middle of night, in the middle of your too-good-to-be-a-dream-wish-this-is-real dream just because of a pesky urge in your bladder which, you may never know, can be a type of urinary incontinence?
Let us define urinary incontinence. What is urinary incontinence? Is that a medical condition? Urinary incontinence is the inability to contain your urine, or involuntary urination or in medical terms, enuresis. And regarding your second question, yes, yes it is.
Urinary incontinence or UI, in short, can be seen mostly from babies, toddlers or a child up to a middle-aged person to the grandpappies and the grandmommies. There are actually types of urinary incontinence. The babies, have no control over their own bladder, they cannot yet speak therefore they cannot control and manipulate their brains to do their willing or their parent’s will. They will pee (and poop), with or without diaper; in or out the bathroom; on the bed, near the tv, on the dog, on your papers, on your other kid’s papers and so on and so forth. As a parent, you have to be extra, extra, extra patient with your babies; you have to wipe clean every trace of pee they have inside the house, or else, sickness is in sight.
Up until they reached the age of less than five, they still do this. They still have the UI condition. But the only difference is that they don’t pee on your dog anymore. They know how to pee on the bathroom now; finally, after all those years of pee-wiping every part of the house. But what didn’t changed is that they still pee on their respective beds. Having a bad dream? The solution is pee. Dreamt of eating unlimited ice cream? Your kid still pees. No dream? The next morning, you can still witness the crime of bed-peeing. Since birth up to the first five to six year of age (the worst case scenario being up to ten years), you put up with this pee everywhere problem, but did you ever think about the future? That when you grow old, you’ll maybe go back to this scenario, but the only thing different is that you are the one who’s peeing, and your kid is the one who puts up with this type of urinary incontinence.
There are actually seven types of urinary incontinence or UI. The first is the stress incontinence. Stress incontinence is the most common type of urinary incontinence in women. There are many causes of this type of urinary incontinence. One is the weakening of the muscles around the bladder or the bladder itself. In women, another reason is a hormonal imbalance or estrogen decrease especially during menopause that weakens the sphincter muscle. In men, on the other hand, it may be prostrate cancer, overgrowth of the prostate gland or prostate surgery.
The second type of UI is the urge incontinence, which is common in the elderly. It is the inability to sustain the urge to urinate more than seven times and is caused by any of this: stroke; tumors or cancer in the bladder, prostate or uterus; diseases of the nervous system; caesarian operation or any surgery involving the rectum or lower intestine.
The next type is the overflow incontinence in which people suffering from this UI cannot completely empty their bladders during urination. This type of urinary incontinence is commonly caused by weakened bladder muscles as a result of nerve damage. The fourth type of urinary incontinence is called functional incontinence. This type of UI is the most common UI in older persons with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Older people suffering from these diseases also suffer from this UI because of their movements and thoughts are limited, and so are their ways of communicating.
Another type of urinary incontinence is the mixed incontinence, in which a person with UI experiences two types of UI at once. The two types of UI that are commonly experienced simultaneously are stress and urge incontinence. The sixth type is the anatomical or developmental abnormalities. UI can be caused by anatomic or physical conditions and/or abnormalities or neurological abnormality. This type of UI can be caused by a traumatic experience, disease, or injury that damaged the nervous system, affecting normal bladder function.
The seventh and last type of urinary incontinence is called temporary incontinence. Urinary incontinence can be acquired by operations, side effects or specific conditions. Such of them like constipation, infections in the vagina or urinary tract, medications like sleeping pills, narcotics, antidepressants and antihistamines, antipsychotic drugs and morphine.
If you think you are experiencing one or more of the symptoms of any type of urinary incontinence, better act early and have medications and procedures done so that you won’t end up with lots of problems regarding urine. One day, you may get tired of pee wiping that you’ll wonder why you end up like that, anyway. Drink lots of water and remember to always rehydrate yourself for a clean bladder and system to avoid any type of urinary incontinence that’ll bring you headaches.
