What Is Stress Urinary Incontinence?

A condition where the involuntary loss of urine occurs when there is a sudden pressure or stress placed on the bladder. Sudden coughing, sneezing, straining while having a bowel movement, and physical activity is common triggers for this type of incontinence.

The muscle that holds urine in the bladder – called the “sphincter” – is too weak to prevent the flow of urine. This can be a problem for women who have given birth or had their uterus removed, but it also affects men and women who have not been pregnant.

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) affects 1 out of 3 adult women in the United States each year, making it one of the most common medical conditions. It is even more prevalent among pregnant women, with up to 1 out of 2 experiencing SUI during the third trimester of pregnancy.

SUI can be caused by many factors, including pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, or hysterectomy. Some people are more likely to develop stress urinary incontinence.

Factors that make the condition more likely include:

• Being overweight

• Chronic coughing due to asthma, bronchitis or other lung problems. Women who smoke are also at risk of developing SUI.

– It is not always possible to stop incontinence without surgery but it can be managed by doing special exercises for the muscles that keep you dry.

There are many medical terms that doctors use to describe the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence (SUI), for example:

• Stress incontinence – this is a term that doctors also sometimes use to refer to cases where there is the involuntary loss of urine as the result of intense physical activity such as coughing, sneezing, or running.

• Urge urinary incontinence – this term describes the loss of urine caused by a strong, sudden need to urinate. You may feel a strong, sudden desire to pass urine. If you have the urge to urinate frequently this is not usually due to stress incontinence but can be caused by an overactive bladder or an infection.

• Mixed urinary incontinence – this term refers to when someone experiences symptoms of stress and urge incontinence at the same time.

• Overactive bladder – this term describes a condition in which the muscles in your bladder wall contract (squeeze) too often or too hard, causing you to need to go to the toilet more often than normal, especially at night. Some women say that they have the feeling of needing to empty their bladder even when it is not full. Overactive bladder can cause people to leak urine when they do not mean to.

• Functional urinary incontinence – this term describes the loss of control caused by circumstances such as a full bladder that is pressing onto the sac surrounding the urethra, preventing it from opening properly. This type of incontinence can cause involuntary leakage on coughing or sneezing but is unlikely to be permanent.