Swooping in with my superhero cape made out of tena pads on...
I'm a women's health physio, got some stats for you:
84% of simple stress incontinence can be cured in 5 physio sessions
70% cure with doing exercises on your own for three months.
a third of women aged 35-55 wet themselves. Most never seek help. That's a shame, you don't have to put up with this guff.
Do 3 exercises, 3 times a day for 3 months and then once a day, every day, until you die, or they stop working.
There's a difference between leaking when you cough/sneeze/jump and a frank loss of control when you run - that's an urgency problem. It can be helped by doing your exercises, but you might need to add in some behavioural stuff (like when you pee yourself because you've put the key in the door, long before you get near the loo).
there's some good evidence now showing that if you are wearing a sports bra you should have some internal support too. Things like www.incostress.com, a silicone tampon. When you run there's 3x your body weight rattling through your pelvic floor - no wonder you pish yourself after a while.
Frequency is when you go "just incase" and land up training your bladder to hold less volume than it should. Peeing more than 8x a day or once at night is not normal.
Any sort of pishing yourself during activities or sex is not normal (unless your partner asks you very, very nicely, I suppose)
Yep, there are some people who shouldn't do kegels - a too tight pelvic floor can mimic a weak one. If you have pain during sex/can't use a tampon/get pelvic pain and wet yourself, you should get an assessment and, naturally, if doing the exercises hurt then you should stop and get an assessment.
There are a number of articles with huge hit rates on the web saying that kegels are guff and squats are good. This is not evidence based and should be ignored Kegels are awesome, see the stats above. Science, see?
Prolapse can be a nasty old thing. but, it's very common, why, I have a grade 2 prolapse myself . Exercises can help, pessaries can help, not getting constipated etc helps - but, you should see a medic to grade it as there is a point of no return when you just need to get the whole thing wheeched back up in place. Get a referral.
I teach 3 basic exercises:
hold 10 secs
10 quick flicks
up 3 floors and back down
So, imagine you are going to let rip a huge, stinky fart - and, you are on a date with someone you really fancy and you don't want to horrify them. THat squeezing round your bumhole is you working your pelvic floor. Hold 10 secs.
If you can't feel it, lie on your tummy (takes the effect of gravity away)
If you still can't feel it, bung something into your fanjo and squeeze it (nothing wooden incase of splinters. Usually we recommend a finger, but it doesn't need to be your finger...)
If you still can't feel it - get a referral.
10 quick flicks - contract/relax/contract/relax etc
3 floors - imagine you've got a lift in your vagina, take it to the first, second and third floors and then back down again. It is a bit odd, but it makes you use the muscles at the front instead of just the ones round your bumhole, and that's important. Try to control the "lift" on the way back down, or you'll kill the Borrowers who are going up for reasons unclear.
10, 10, 3, 3x a day, 3 months.
follow me on twitter - @gussiegrips, when I tweet, you twitch your twinkle. Otherwise, you'll forget.
I've got a very amateurish website (linkie on my profile, don't want to fall foul of advertising, though, i'm not selling anything...yet, but I do need to turn this into some sort of job!) with further info.
I'd like MN to run this as a campaign - it's shockingly common, easily fixed and yet we don't talk about it. I've just turned this stuff into a comedy show and run it at the Edinburgh Fringe, went well and i'm hoping to use that to break down the taboos surrounding it.
Essentially - try the exercises. They are boring. But, they bloody well work and, being in control of your bladder will change your life.
PM me if you have questions, I'm happy to help. And, we should get MN to run this as a campaign, seriously, it makes people so utterly miserable. (a third of people with incontinence are also clinically depressed - obviously, it doesn't make you feel very good about yourself)
Oh, and I've not seen the dvd on foofoo funbox (keep asking her for a sample, I'm not bloody buying it if I'm going to be recommending it to patients!) but it does look sound. She's not a physio, but the exercises look ok from what I've seen on the web. However, if you do the 10,10,3 you will get better - science, see? Free, too.
Don't put up with it. You really, truly, don't have to.
right, go and #doyerblardyexercises. Right now. Go on.