Female Incontinence Treatment

Western OB/GYN physicians bring advanced training in treating urinary incontinence. Also known as urinary leakage, incontinence is not a normal part of aging. If you are experiencing urinary leakage and it is affecting your quality of life, talk with your physician, certified nurse midwife or certified family nurse practitioner about your symptoms. 

We complete a thorough evaluation, including urodynamics testing, which helps to determine how effectively your bladder is working. The evaluation results help us to recommend a treatment option that is right for you and your lifestyle.

Our incontinence services:

• Evaluation and testing
• Urodynamics, or study of bladder function
• Behavioral counseling
• Non-surgical treatments, including InterStim
• Surgical treatments

Types of Incontinence

There are several types of incontinence. We see women with urge incontinence and stress urinary incontinence most often. We’re happy to say many of our patients are enjoying life to the fullest after seeking treatment at Western OB/GYN.

If Surgery is Necessary

If surgery is recommended, our scheduling staff helps you to prepare for surgery. A pre-surgery appointment is necessary within 30 days before surgery. We invite you and your loved ones to ask as many questions as you need to feel comfortable with your upcoming surgery.

Treatment Options

Behavior therapies

Behavior modification is used to train one’s bladder and sphincter muscles by decreasing fluid intake and by prompting or scheduling voiding.

Pelvic muscle exercises

Kegel exercises are exercises commonly intended to strengthen weak muscles surrounding the bladder.

External devices

A pessary is a device that is designed to apply pressure to help reposition the urethra, permitting it to close tightly. It features a stiff ring that is inserted into the vagina to exert pressure against the wall of the vagina and urethra.

Medications

There are a number of medications to treat incontinence that is caused by the urge to continually void. When incontinence is stress related, there are no medications to treat this. For incontinence caused by a combination of both urge and stress, drug therapy may be helpful in treating the urge component.

Surgery

There are a number of surgical approaches to strengthen, support, elevate and/or restore the urethra and bladder function. These can be used when other treatments are not working and include:

• Interstim – While other therapies focus on the bladder muscles, Medtronic therapies target the nerves, which is thought to help restore normal bladder function.
• Slings – Procedures used to treat hypermobility in which a sling is used to support the urethra when there is increased abdominal pressure.
• Self-fixated slings – can be used to support the urethra and are secured in place by friction and tissue ingrowth, and require no sutures or screws.