The Link Between Urinary Incontinence And Pelvic Floor Issues

Many people experience urinary incontinence at some point in their lives.

While urinary incontinence is a normal part of infancy, most people don’t expect it to play a major role in their adult lives.

If you’ve experienced urinary incontinence as an adult, you might feel ashamed or embarrassed.

However, urinary incontinence is a common condition that affects millions of Americans.

Pelvic floor dysfunction plays a major role.

Approximately one third of adult women experience some form of pelvic floor dysfunction.

In these cases, women’s health physical therapy can help.

At Capitol Physical Therapy, we offer pelvic floor physical therapy in Washington DC to help manage and prevent pelvic floor dysfunction.

Our physical therapists can help you improve pelvic floor dysfunctions and address related urinary incontinence.

Despite being less common, pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence can also affect men.

According to Urology Associates of Denver, approximately 25% of men will experience urinary incontinence during their lifetime.

Physical therapy for men’s health can also help.

Today, we’d like to dive deeper into the link between urinary incontinence in relation to pelvic floor issues.

Let’s get started.

What Is Your Pelvic Floor?

Your pelvic floor is a group of several muscles that work to support your bowel and bladder.

Your pelvic floor muscles coordinate to contract and relax.

This process helps control both your bowel and bladder function.

For instance, during a bowel movement, your pelvic floor muscles relax your rectum, allowing the passage of stool.

You can think of your pelvic floor as a type of supportive sling for these organs.

In addition to supporting your rectum and bladder, your pelvic floor also:

• Controls your sphincter muscles (ring shaped muscles that help control the muscles around your anus)
• Supports your lower back
• Stabilizes your pelvic bones
• Helps with sexual function

What Is Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?

Pelvic floor dysfunction occurs when there is either too much or too little tension on your pelvic floor muscles.

When this occurs, your pelvic floor muscles can’t properly contract and release.

This may lead to a variety of complications.

According to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the most common complications are urinary and fecal incontinence, as well as pelvic organ prolapse.

However, pelvic floor dysfunction may lead to other complications as well.

For instance, some people with this condition can experience pain during sexual intercourse, particularly during penetrative sex.

Others report various types of chronic pain, including pain in the lower back, pelvic region, genitals, or rectum.

RELATED ARTICLE: How Can Physical Therapy Help With Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type II (Causalgia)?

What Is Urinary Incontinence?

As we previously stated, urinary incontinence is one of the most common symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction.

Urinary incontinence refers to a loss of bladder control and subsequent urine leakage.

Some people with this condition can also have trouble starting or holding their urine stream.

In addition to physical symptoms, urinary incontinence can also affect your mental wellbeing.

It can cause people with this condition to experience shame or embarrassment.

These feelings may lead to further mental health complications, such as depression and low self esteem.

It’s important to intervene early and stick with your treatment plan in order to protect both your physical and mental health.

There’re many types of urinary incontinence.

Urinary incontinence may present as one of several types or a mix of multiple types.

The two most common forms of chronic urinary incontinence are stress incontinence and urge incontinence.

Stress incontinence is especially common postpartum and can happen when you cough, sneeze, or participate in strenuous exercise or activities which engage your abdominal muscles.

Comparatively, urge incontinence causes a strong, urgent need to urinate.

Oftentimes, people with urge incontinence can’t hold their urine until they reach a toilet.

This may feel embarrassing and stressful, but it’s important to remember this is a far more common condition than you might think.

In fact, a 2011 study by Markland Et Al found that about half of women experience urinary incontinence at some point in their lives.

This risk also increases with age.

This is why urinary incontinence is a common topic of interest amongst senior’s health.

So, you’re not alone in dealing with this condition.

And you’re also not alone in treating it.

At Capitol Physical Therapy, we can help provide physical therapy treatments for urinary incontinence.

But before we get to that, let’s finish our look at how urinary incontinence happens.

How Does Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Cause Urinary Incontinence?

Complications involving your pelvic floor muscles may lead to urinary incontinence.

However, the exact cause may vary depending on the type of incontinence you have.

On the one hand, weak pelvic floor muscles can play a major role in urge incontinence.

In these cases, your muscles can’t constrict enough to control your bladder function.

On the other hand, excess tightness in your pelvic floor muscles can lead to stress incontinence.

For your bladder to work correctly, your pelvic floor muscles must properly coordinate contractions to help decrease your urge to urinate and keep your urethra closed.

Subsequently, any condition or injury which affects your pelvic floor muscles may lead to urinary incontinence.

Examples include:

• Pregnancy and childbirth
• Prostate cancer
• Straining due to chronic constipation
• Obesity
• Traumatic injuries, like a car accident or a major fall
• Connective tissue disorders

How Can Physical Therapy Help?

Physical therapy offers a range of therapeutic methods aimed at improving pelvic floor dysfunction and related urinary incontinence.

Physical therapy offers a variety of benefits for people living with pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence, including:

• Gaining control over your symptoms
• Reducing the need for pads, special underwear, and medicines
• Reducing your chance of needing surgery to correct the dysfunction

Your physical therapist will work with you to create a treatment plan that is tailored to your specific strengths and limitations.

Some of the therapeutic approaches your physical therapist may use include:

• Pelvic floor and muscle strengthening exercises
• Relaxation techniques
• Biofeedback

Pelvic floor and muscle strengthening and stretching exercises can help support proper bladder function by increasing awareness and movement of your pelvic floor muscles.

Biofeedback is another useful therapeutic technique which uses an internal sensor to read your pelvic floor muscle activity.

At Capitol Physical Therapy, we often utilize internal tools, such as dilators, which can promote a biofeedback technique.

In the event that you require surgery to correct your pelvic floor dysfunction, a physical therapist can also help with post surgery recovery.

As you can see, there are a variety of options available to help with pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence.

Book Your Appointment With Capitol Physical Therapy Today

At Capitol Physical Therapy, we have a special interest in helping people like you improve their pelvic floor dysfunction to overcome urinary incontinence.

Are you interested in understanding more about pelvic floor issues, urinary incontinence, and how we can help?

Or have you recently undergone surgery to correct your pelvic floor dysfunction and are looking for physical therapy recovery support?

Book an appointment with Capitol Physical Therapy today and take your first step toward saying goodbye to urinary incontinence for good.