Types of Incontinence
Incontinence affects different individuals in different ways.
Common forms of urinary incontinence include:
- Stress: People with stress incontinence may experience leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising, lifting and performing other kinds of strenuous activity. Childbirth and some surgeries can weaken the pelvic floor (the muscles under the bladder) allowing urine to escape when the abdomen is under stress. Young women often experience this form of incontinence. Stress incontinence is usually caused by having a weak sphincter mechanism. The muscles of the pelvic floor and the sphincter muscle are unable to keep the bladder outlet tube (urethra) closed during straining activities that increase pressure inside the abdomen.
- Urge: Women with urge incontinence may loose large amounts of urine. There’s a feeling of not being able to reach the toilet fast enough. Urge incontinence is usually caused by having an ‘overactive bladder’, one that contracts before you give it permission to. Many women experience urge incontinence due to infections that irritate the bladder or bladder outlet tube (urethra), or cause muscle spasms, which force the urine out of the bladder. Constipation can also cause urge incontinence through the loss of muscle control. A stroke, spinal cord injury, dementia or diseases that affect the nervous system, such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis can bring it on.
- Mixed: Many women experience both stress and urge incontinence at different times or under different circumstances. The causes of the two forms may or may not be related, and should be evaluated separately.
Less common forms of incontinence include:
- Overflow: Some women either do not get the urge to urinate or have a blockage in the tube that passes from the bladder out of the body (urethra). In both of these instances, the bladder never completely empties, and when it overfills, excess urine is forced out. Nervous system disorders and spinal cord injuries are frequent causes of overflow incontinence.
- Functional: People who are unable or unwilling to use a toilet are functionally incontinent. Examples include severe arthritis or confusion brought on by other illnesses that prevents a person from using a toilet without assistance.
- Total: Total incontinence is rare. A birth defect or injury may cause urine to leak from the body uncontrollably. Some people with dementia may lose bladder control only during the night. Dementia is the result of any number of illnesses that cause mental deterioration, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
- Reflex: Can occur for those that have any type of spinal injury. Whether it be full paralysis or damage to the spinal column from poor manual handling or lifting techniques that results in back injuries.