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Stress Urinary Incontinence services offered in Upper East Side, New York, NY
Stress urinary incontinence can cause urine leakage or loss at the most awkward times. Reconstructive urologist Gregory Amend, MD, understands how incontinence may affect your life and offers a variety of treatment options at his office in the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City, New York. Call the office or use the online scheduling tool to learn about the effective treatments for stress urinary incontinence.
Stress Urinary Incontinence Q & A
What is stress urinary incontinence?
Stress urinary incontinence is the involuntary leakage or loss of urine due to pressure on your bladder. The pressure causes the sphincter muscle to open briefly and release urine.
Stress urinary incontinence can happen when you:
- Jump
- Sneeze
- Laugh
- Lift something heavy
- Cough
In severe cases, people with stress urinary incontinence can experience leakage when standing up, walking, or bending over. Women are more likely than men to suffer from this type of incontinence. However, urinary incontinence affects both men and women.
How do I know I have stress urinary incontinence?
If you leak any amount of urine when an activity increases abdominal pressure, you have stress urinary incontinence. You might just dribble a bit of urine or, in more severe cases, soak your underwear.
You’re more likely to develop stress urinary incontinence if you're a female, especially if you’ve been pregnant and given birth.
Being overweight, smoking habits, chronic coughing, having pelvic or prostate surgery, and nerve injuries to the lower back also put you at risk for stress urinary incontinence.
How do you treat stress urinary incontinence?
Amend offers several treatments for stress urinary incontinence, depending on its severity and cause.
Lifestyle changes
You may benefit from wearing extra absorbent pads when faced with a situation such as intense exercise. Dr. Amend also teaches pelvic floor muscle exercises (Kegel exercises) to help strengthen the area.
Losing weight if you’re carrying extra pounds, quitting smoking, and avoiding constipation help with stress incontinence.
Bladder training is another method of treatment. You learn to visit the restroom regularly so you don’t end up with a full bladder that’s ready to release from pressure.
Medical devices
Dr. Amend also offers medical devices for men that help with stress urinary incontinence. You may use an artificial urinary sphincter. This device consists of a cuff (wraps around your urethra to control urine flow) and a pump and balloon (moves fluid away from urethra). You’ll have to squeeze the pump to urinate.
Surgery
The most common surgery for stress urinary incontinence is urethral sling surgery, where Dr. Amend places a small strip of metal under your urethra to keep it lifted during activity.
Bladder neck suspension is another surgery that involves placing sutures in the tissue along the side of the bladder neck and urethra to support the urethra and sphincter muscles.
Contact the office of Gregory Amend, MD, if you’re suffering from stress urinary incontinence. Call to set up an appointment or use the online scheduling tool today.