Pelvic Floor PT Stop Leaking and Stay Dry

By Jennifer Chu, PT

ITR Physical Therapy, LLC

More Pain Management & Rehabilitation Articles

Pelvic Floor PT Stop Leaking and Stay Dry

Do you leak just a little bit when you laugh, cough or sneeze? Or maybe you only leak when you run and jump. Sometimes people's bladders keep getting stronger and stronger and they can't make it to the bathroom in time. If this is the case, you are not alone. In fact, it has been estimated that up to 33% of women deal with urinary incontinence or leakage. Many women suffer in silence. Men can suffer too. These conversations are not always comfortable, but they are important to have.

Urinary incontinence is common, but it is not normal and you can do something about it. In fact, 80% of those affected by urinary incontinence can be improved or cured.

The two major types of urinary incontinence are stress, when bladder control is lost due to a weakness of the pelvic floor muscles (usually with activities such as coughing and running) and urge when one experiences a sudden strong urge and can't control it. For stress urinary incontinence strengthening your pelvic floor muscles (aka Kegel exercises) is helpful. These muscles tighten around your urethra (the tube that goes from the bladder to the outside of the body), helping to stop the loss of urine. If they are weak they may not be able to effectively close off the urethra.

For those dealing with the urge incontinence, your pelvic muscles could actually be too tight. Interestingly, they could also be weak due to the muscles being stuck in a shortened position. When this is the case just doing your PFM exercises/Kegels could actually make things worse. First, you need to learn how to relax and lengthen your PFM before learning how to strengthen them.

Diet can also be a huge contributing factor to both stress and urge urinary incontinence. Foods that are acidic (like citrus, tomatoes, vinegar, coffee), alcoholic beverages, caffeinated products, carbonated beverages, spicy foods, artificial sweeteners, food colorings and flavorings and chocolate can all make your urges stronger and leaking worse. Though it may seem counterintuitive, it is also important to drink enough water. Dehydrating yourself can only make things worse, by causing your bladder to be more irritated and unable to hold urine. If you take your body weight in pounds and divide that by two, that is a good estimation of the number of ounces of water you should consume in a day.

You don't need to suffer from unwanted leakage. Physical therapy can be incredibly beneficial in helping you learn the correct exercises to do for your specific needs. In fact research shows that working with a trained women's health physical therapist helps women more correctly perform Kegel exercises and have a better outcome than going at it alone.