What Is Mixed Incontinence?

Brown haired middle aged woman with the glasses

Urinary incontinence occurs when urine is involuntarily leaked from the bladder. This can range from little leaks to the full bladder emptying. There are many different types of incontinence, and one of them is mixed incontinence. While it can be an unpleasant experience, mixed incontinence doesn’t need to rule your life. The good news is that it doesn’t need to put a downer on your lifestyle.

What is mixed incontinence?

Incontinence comes in three main types: stress, urge and overflow. If you have a combination of any of two of these types of incontinence, this is known as mixed incontinence.

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Symptoms

Because mixed incontinence is typically a combination of stress and urge incontinence, it shares symptoms with both.

The main symptom of stress incontinence is leaking little spurts of urine as a result of everyday activities such as:

  • Laughing
  • Sneezing
  • Coughing
  • Exercise
  • Lifting objects or bending over
  • Standing up or getting out of the car
  • Sex

Urge incontinence symptoms include:

  • Increased urination frequency – more than 8 times a day
  • Waking up in the middle of the night 2 times or more to urinate
  • Sudden, intense urges to urinate, whether or not your bladder is full
  • Urinary urges that come on so strong that you may or may not be able to make it to the toilet

If you experience a mix of symptoms from these two lists, you likely have mixed incontinence.

Causes

Just like mixed incontinence shares symptoms with urge and stress incontinence, it also shares causes with them.

Urge incontinence is caused by damage to the nerves of the bladder, the nervous system, or the bladder tissue itself. It is also caused by menopause. This is typically a result of previous pelvic surgery, such as a C-section, or a neurological disease such as Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis. Urinary tract infections can cause temporary urge incontinence, but this most often resolves itself as soon as the infection clears up.

Stress incontinence is caused by a weakened pelvic floor, to the extent that everyday activities that put pressure on the pelvic floor cause a small amount of urine to leak from the bladder. Common life events like pregnancy, childbirth, and being overweight all weaken the pelvic floor so that it no longer properly supports the bladder. Stress incontinence has nothing to do with experiencing emotional stress in your life.

Risk factors such as thyroid problems, untreated diabetes, stroke, smoking, and even certain medications can worsen symptoms of incontinence.

Treatments and remedies

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