Urinary Incontinence As a Hidden Epidemic

Women suffer from many problems during childbirth. Apart from the pre pregnancy stress and the pain of childbirth, the post pregnancy situations create a number of health issues. Incontinence or urinary incontinence is a common post pregnancy problem faced by many women. It is a condition when there is an accidental or involuntary leakage of urine from the bladder. This can be also happen to men, but women are common victims to this health ailment. This creates psychological issues in women and cause many hardships in social life. They turn into stress incontinence problem, which is more complicated. The problem can be a small leak of urine to a complete loss of control over the bladder. The condition is however treatable and it takes considerable time. According to reliable sources, in 2010, around 4.8 million Australians have bladder and bowel problems. It is more than a quarter of the total population of the continent over age 15. The continence foundation has reported that, more than 70% cases are reported to be women patients.

Most of the women patients suffering from incontinence problem are under 50 years of age. The figure goes up to 1.7 million. A majority of women suffer from urinary incontinence after childbirth and just following the menopause and prior to that. According to Millard 1998, women suffer from this problem for over three months from mild, moderate to severe incontinence. They are between ages 45 to 49. It is found out in a survey that, approximately 60 to 70% patients can be cured and managed. The symptoms of this problem can lead to withdrawal from the normal daily life. The condition also leads to withdrawal from social life, since it creates an embarrassing situation for the patient. It also restraints the patient from physical activities and are makes the quality of life lower. It also affects the general health and well-being of women and may lead to severe diseases such as osteoporosis, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, depression and anxiety.

It is a complex problem, which is an outcome of many other factors. However, a strong pelvic floor helps to build a good resistance to this. To treat urinary incontinence, pelvic floor exercises help a lot. This problem is also common among young women who have never been pregnant. ABC Health and Well-being, conducted a test among 1000 women between age 16 to 30 who have never been pregnant and found incontinence issues among 12.6%, one in every eight. This health issue among women can be successfully treated in most of the cases. The loss of muscle tone and strength of the pelvic floor can be reversed with proper physical exercise. The weighted vaginal balls are found out to be quite helpful in treating this problem.