Incontinence in St. Augustine

Your Guide to Addressing Urinary Incontinence

Over 25 million Americans experience temporary or chronic urinary incontinence, but only 25% to 61% of women who experience incontinence talk with their doctors about their concerns.

At Crescent Beach Care, we understand that it can be difficult for men and women to talk about leakage, but we’re here to finally address urinary incontinence and identify solutions. In this blog, we’ll talk all about possible treatment options and provide a guide to incontinence in St. Augustine.

What is urinary incontinence?

Urinary incontinence is when you experience urinary leaks and loss of bladder control. This can happen when you cough, sneeze, hear the sound of water, jump, and more. You can develop incontinence at any age, but it is most common in women over the age of 50. There are actually 5 different types of incontinence.

Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence comes from excessive strain or trauma on the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is a grouping of muscles connecting from your tailbone to the front of your pelvic bone, and it is responsible for stabilizing your core and supporting the function of organs like your bladder and reproductive system.

Surgery, childbirth, and even the natural aging process can weaken the pelvic floor. This renders it unable to effectively support your bladder, causing you to experience leaks when your body experiences impact from sneezing, coughing, running, jumping, and more.

Urge Incontinence

Urge incontinence is characterized by having the urge to urinate frequently, followed by the loss of urine before you can reach a bathroom. The muscle responsible for creating the urge to urinate is the detrusor, and when it becomes overactive, it can create the urge to go even when your bladder is not full.

The cause for urge incontinence is typically an underlying medical condition, which can include damage to the brain, spinal damage, and diabetes. Typically, to treat urge incontinence, you will need to address the underlying illness.

Overflow Incontinence

We also see patients experiencing overflow incontinence in St. Augustine at Crescent Beach Care. Overflow incontinence occurs when urine is blocked from passing normally out of the bladder, which prevents you from feeling the urge to urinate. Eventually, the bladder becomes overfilled and pulls the urethra open, allowing urine to leak out.

Overflow incontinence is caused by a urine blockage, but the source of the blockage can range from anywhere between bladder stones to scar tissue to tumors. Certain diseases can also impact how the bladder muscle functions, preventing the bladder from contracting and creating the urge to “go.”

Functional Incontinence

Functional incontinence is when your bladder works normally, but you have another illness, disease, or obstacle that prevents you from reaching and using the toilet. This can be seen with certain medication use, patients with dementia, or certain mental illnesses.

Reflex Incontinence

Reflex incontinence is when the bladder contracts, expelling urine without any warning or urge, often as a result of medical conditions involving nerve damage. Some of these conditions include multiple sclerosis, a spinal cord injury, other injuries, or damage from surgery or radiation treatment.

 

Symptoms of Incontinence

Incontinence can manifest itself in many different ways besides leaks. Here are some other symptoms of urinary incontinence that you can look out for.

  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Pelvic pain
  • Recurring UTIs
  • Kidney stones
  • Pain during intercourse
  • Numbness in the pelvic area
  • Loss of sexual sensation
  • Pins and needles in the pelvic area
  • Difficulty reaching orgasm
  • Swelling in the pelvic area

Incontinence Treatment Options

There are many options to treat urinary incontinence, depending on the type of incontinence, the cause of your incontinence, and your preferences for treatment.

Emsella

Emsella is our most popular treatment for stress incontinence in St. Augustine. That is because in just a few 28-minute sessions, it can restore strength to your pelvic floor without using invasive methods. For Emsella, all you need to do is sit fully clothed on the chair-like device while it directs HIFEM (high-intensity focused electromagnetic) energy to your pelvic floor. The HIFEM energy stimulates over 11,000 contractions within your pelvic floor muscles, delivering an intense workout to strengthen them naturally. Plus, following every session, you can return to your normal daily activities—no downtime or recovery required.

Medications

Some types of urinary incontinence can be treated with medications. If you have an overactive bladder causing your incontinence, our providers can prescribe muscle relaxers to help prevent bladder contractions that cause leaks. To determine if medication is the right course of treatment for your urinary incontinence, your provider will ask about your medical history, learn about your symptoms, and possibly send you to get labs done before prescribing medication.

Medical Treatment

Sometimes, incontinence in St. Augustine is a symptom itself, meaning we can potentially resolve your concerns by treating the medical condition causing them in the first place. For urge, overflow, or functional incontinence, we may prescribe medications to help treat underlying illnesses that are causing leakage. We can also work with specialists to optimize your care.

 

Working Within the Medical Community

We actually do more than work with specialists—we work with a network of expert doctors in the area to help ensure you receive high-quality, personalized care. As a primary care practice, we often work with other specialty providers when patients need further treatment. That is why as we’ve grown our practice, we have also grown our network of doctors and specialists who we know will provide you with the same exceptional care we provide at Crescent Beach Care.

Your Treatment Process

Every treatment process will look different from patient to patient, but here are the general steps you can expect to follow when you come to treat your incontinence in St. Augustine.

Consultation

You will first meet with one of our expert providers and talk directly with them about your concerns. Your provider will ask you many questions about your medical history, your symptoms, any medications you take, and more. Before recommending treatment, your provider will need to know what type of urinary incontinence you are experiencing, as well as the root causes of your concerns. They may ask you to complete labs and urinalysis and then return for a follow-up so they can have a clearer idea of how to best provide treatment.

Treatment

Like we said, treatment will look different depending on what type of incontinence you have. We may work with a urinary or neurological specialist if your incontinence is caused by conditions we cannot treat in our office. For some, we may prescribe medications to help relax overactive muscles, or use Emsella to tighten loose pelvic floor muscles. Whatever the cause may be, our team will ensure you receive the care you need to treat your incontinence in St. Augustine.

Next Steps

Once you have treated your incontinence, you will most likely need ongoing treatment to maintain your results. Whether this includes maintenance Emsella sessions or ongoing medication, our team works with you and any other providers to ensure you can feel comfortable and confident in your body.

Frequently Asked Questions

When patients are first learning about urinary incontinence, they understandably have a lot of questions. Here are the most common questions we hear about incontinence in St. Augustine, and our answers to them.

Are there things I can do at home to manage my incontinence?

Yes, there are things you can do at home to improve your incontinence symptoms. You can manage your weight, eat a healthy, balanced diet, drink plenty of water (roughly half your body weight in ounces each day), and avoid caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco. Doing these things can help decrease irritation in your bladder and increase control of your urination.

What medical concerns can you treat that cause incontinence?

We can treat urinary tract infections, constipation, vaginal infections, and a weak pelvic floor. We provide some treatments for an overactive bladder, but if your bladder is not receptive to treatment, we will help you find a urologist to look deeper into the issue.

How do you diagnose urinary incontinence?

We learn about your full medical history, including medications you take, and ask you questions about your symptoms. We can complete urinalysis and A1C testing in the office, but if you need X-rays or labs completed, we will send an order to a clinic of your choice. Once we have completed all necessary tests, then we can help diagnose the source of your incontinence and create a treatment plan.

 

Ready to Conquer Your Incontinence?

It’s time to stop worrying about leaks. Our team is more than happy to work with you to find a unique solution for your concerns and help you live your life confidently. To determine if you are experiencing urinary incontinence and find the right solutions for your needs, you can request an appointment with one of our expert providers. Or, if you’re not quite ready to commit to an appointment, you can use our treatment planning tool to take the first step towards conquering your incontinence St. Augustine.

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