Do you have to squeeze when you sneeze?
Squeeze and hold, stop that urine flow!
Hold for 3…2…1…and pee until you’re done
now squeeze and hold, stop that urine flow!
Hold for 3…2…1…and pee until you’re done…
Ok, maybe everyone doesn’t chant while first learning how to do Kegel exercises, but whatever gets the job done, am I right? Except what if you’re spending energy on an exercise that isn’t truly addressing your reason for stress incontinence?
That’s right, not only are there different reasons for urinary incontinence there are different approaches to healing from it.
Kegel Exercises
Kegel exercises might be useful if you’re leaking just a few drops of urine when you sneeze or laugh but they’re not much use if the leakage is, shall we say plentiful? Or if you’re actually experiencing overflow incontinence which happens when someone squirts out a tiny bit of urine when their bladder is full.
The walls of the bladder are made from smooth muscle tissue known as the detrusor muscle. This muscle tapers down and connects with the urethral sphincter. When the detrusor and the sphincter muscles relax we get that very satisfying experience of a good pee. If those muscles can’t do their jobs well, or if there’s been injury to the pelvic floor where the urethra entrance is, then we can experience anything from incontinence to urinary retention.
Surgery
There are a plethora of surgeries, devices, and injections that have proven to be successful with stress incontinence with a litany of potential side effects such as worsening of incontinence, infection, pelvic pain, painful sex, and urinary retention. Or you could try acupuncture.
ACUPUNCTURE
Acupuncture has been shown as an effective treatment for stress incontinence in a meta-analysis recently published in the European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology and electroacupuncture has been demonstrated to be a safe and effective treatment in a different meta-analysis published in the Journal of International Medical Research. And guess what? Remember those side effects that made you shiver in the last paragraph? Not an issue with acupuncture!
So instead of, or in addition to, trying to exercise injured muscles back into easier social situations, make an appointment with Dr. B.J. Putnam, DAc at Garden Path Acupuncture.
She will evaluate your situation through the lens of what acupuncture and herbal medicine can offer you and help you take your next step away from the bathroom and back on the dance floor.
