Urinary incontinence

[ColdTofuSandwich]

Slightly embarrassing. Twice now in the last 3 months I’ve sat down on the sofa and weed myself.

No warning, just sat down and started weeing. Clenched as hard as possible but it wouldn’t stop. Ran to loo and finished in toilet. But went through my pants onto my trousers.

unpleasant at home, but I’m terrified it will happen when out or at work.

Im 47, 3 kids delivered vaginally, and some limited stress incontinence if I have a bad cough for a while. Now on HRT.

Just wondering if anyone has had this randomly happen, and what is was?

all ideas very welcome!

Get yourself to a pelvic floor physio therapist. They really work wonders. Been a god send to me in the last year. Are you taking on added oestrogen? It was a game changer for me.

Tena (or similar) are a great product.

Thanks both. I’m on 75 evorel patch (and progesterone two weeks a month) Do you mean the topical gel? I am wondering if that would be useful.

I’ll look at tena - at least when I’m at work.

I didn’t know pelvic floor physiotherapists were a thing thank you! Looking up now.

Vaginal estrogen cream
Works wonders
No risks to trying it

You can start doing regular pelvic floor exercises while waiting to see a specialist physio.

I downloaded an NHS APP. It was a one off payment, a few pound. called Squeezy. I stopped having accidents after following the excercises, after a few days…. Twice I have fallen out of the habit and have had accidents, each time I go back to it, it works.

I wasn’t clear, apologies. As pp has mentioned you can get vaginal estrogen gel. I use Vagifem which is a tablet you insert into your vagina.
Working with a pelvic floor physiotherapist has been life changing for me, she’s advised me on speaking to GP to sort out my meds etc. But ultimately I’ve gone from needing pads daily to not wearing them at all. There is hope OP and if you do the work it will get better.

I’d also recommend the vaginal estrogen (I use the Vagifem tablets too, found them easier than a cream/gel). Helped so much with urgency problems I was having and the menopause nurse recommended I keep using them even though I’m now on HRT more generally. Also really good idea to see a pelvic floor physio like previous posters recommended - they really can make a huge difference very quickly. Best of luck with everything!

Thank you so much all for the suggestions.

I now have a doc appointment, I’ve signed up for Squeezy, and I’ve contacted a pelvic therapist!

There are some really good ‘floor’ therapists on TikTok.
I’ve also noticed mine is much worse after too much caffeine.

You might like to look into buying Perifit which is a device you use to learn how to work your muscles properly.

It's a small probe and you link it to your phone to follow the 'games' - based on squeezes.

If it continues, ask to see urology or uro-gyne (mix of gynaecologists who've done extra urology training or urologists who've done extra gyne training). Depending on the causes and the severity , pelvic floor physio can help but sometimes just reduce it, and it can still be quite frequent.

This isn't to say you shouldn't go (still do), but sometimes medical treatments combined with the physio are the best way forward. There's medications you can try, and for more severe cases, injections of botox and other meds, and sometimes nerve stimulation things. As well as topical vaginal oestrogen creams which I'd ask your GP to try.

So I would be seeing your GP and the physio as well, as you need to identify the cause and the severity of incontinence and the type of incontinence (is it urge or stress, seems to be urge from what you've said). You may need some further urology testing to identify this (sometimes can be a range of urodynamic testing, etc). Then urology can treat you from there whilst you also do pelvic floor physio to help. I'd be wanting to go down both routes for the best outcome possible.