How to deal with urinary incontinence?

In an age where celebrities seem happy to bare all and share all, how to deal with urinary incontinence seems to be one of the last real taboos left in our society. This could be why women who suffer from incontinence (and up to one in three of us do) feel so embarrassed about it. In order to deal with incontinence, they often adapt their lifestyles to avoid awkward accidents. This way of managing incontinence can, in turn, have a huge knock-on effect on their social lives – whether exercising or taking long car journeys – and on their self-confidence. Women with urinary incontinence tend to keep the problem to themselves for years without discussing it with anyone, even their family doctor or gynaecologist. They do not realise that there are many other women who are also wondering how to deal with incontinence and going through exactly the same problems they are. Help with how to deal with urinary incontinence is available. I highly recommend all women experiencing urinary incontinence use their next health check-up to speak about their concerns and allow themselves to get help in dealing with incontinence.

• Start doing pelvic floor exercises. The pelvic floor is a system of muscles, ligaments and nerves that create a basket of support for your bladder. Fitting these exercises into your routine can be relatively straightforward. As you’re sitting at your desk, flex and release the muscles used to hold in urine. Do this at least three times a day.

• Avoid foods that irritate the bladder. This might mean limiting alcohol, caffeine, citrus or chocolate, as all of these foods affect the acidity of urine, ultimately irritating an already sensitive bladder. Keep a journal for a week in which you document what you eat, when you eat it, and how often you feel the urge to urinate. This may help you to identify correlations between the food you eat and the intensity of your incontinence so that corrections can be made to your diet.