A short story of stress urinary Incontinence
Time to kick it into gear New York!
It’s that time of year again NYC! The sun is out longer, the weather is getting warmer, and little by little we are all starting to get back outside. Beach season (and the Hamptons <3) is right around the corner, and with the beach comes beach body season. For many of us this is the perfect time to pop out of hibernation and jump back into that workout flow, which we probably should have been following all year long – but hey, better now than never right?
Ok no problem, nothing a few weeks of clean eating and exercise won’t fix. So we start to meal prep a bit, go shopping for some new threads to rock in the gym, and make a promise to ourselves to get back into some hardcore programs to kick ourselves into gear. Maybe we run in Central Park, and box jump at a HIIT class, and play some basketball with our friends, and weightlift at a CrossFit class, and then something happens. Something that we have never noticed before – something EMBARASSING. And then the voice in the back of your head chimes in, “It’s ok, not that much came out – just a few drops, no one knows.”
“I just peed a little” – a Story of Laughter and Stress Urinary Incontinence
So you don’t let it get you down and keep training hard like any NYC resident would, but it happens again. Then one day you are checking out all the beautiful flowers in Madison Square Park and your allergies kick in, and then it happens when you sneeze. And Friday night at dinner, your friend cracks a really funny joke and it happens again. Only this time you couldn’t help but to say something, so in the midst of laughter you joke with your friends, “I just peed a little” and you all continue laughing – but there was actually some truth to this statement this time.
Did you know that even a few drops lost during an episode like the one described above is already considered incontinence? Even so, who really wants to admit that they have difficulty holding their pee in? Don’t be afraid ladies – thankfully there is treatment (and its generally pretty simple treatment involving pelvic floor physical therapy) for this particular type of incontinence!
Ladies in NYC, Incontinence is more common than you think!
Let’s backtrack a bit, incontinence is simply when someone’s bladder pressure rises higher than the urethral pressure (Bo 2015). In even simpler terms, when the muscles around the urethra are incapable of contracting properly or are too weak, we have an accident. But even if it is just a few drops, we should already be alert and act accordingly before the problem gets worse – because no one wants to lose their entire bladder contents unwillingly.
Interestingly enough, incontinence affects more people than you may have originally expected. About 1 in 3 women will experience incontinence and of those who do, around 40% will experience stress urinary incontinence (Bo 2015). Stress urinary incontinence is when you have involuntary loss of urine with physical exertion or increased intrathoracic pressure (Herman and Wallace 2017).
In other words, loss of urine when you cough, sneeze, or exercise (to name a few) is the dreaded “SUI”.
I thought that only affects older people!
You might have some drops come out when you run and jump, but don’t be afraid ladies! Did you know that SUI occurs mainly in young and perimenopausal women (Bo 2015)?
Wait, what – I thought that only affects older people? This is definitely a common misconception, so don’t feel scared or alone if this is something that you think might be affecting you!
Come see a Pelvic Floor Therapist in Midtown Manhattan!
Ladies, there is a solution to this condition! Come drop in to CSC+M here in midtown Manhattan, and visit me for a consult so we can chat about some of the solutions that are available! Here at the midtown NYC clinic we will discuss what pelvic floor therapy entails, what exercises we can use to battle SUI, and get moving towards a healthier version of you! See you all soon!
Bø, Kari, and Robert Freeman. Evidence-Based Physical Therapy for the Pelvic Floor: Bridging Science and Clinical Practice. Churchill Livingstone, 2015.
Rader, Heather, and Dustienne Miller. “Pelvic Floor Level 1.” Herman and Wallace. 2017, Albany.
