Stay Mindful While Menopause

by Richa Pattanaik Blogger

Women all over the world go through menopause, but not all of them are aware of what all it entails until it happens to them. To avoid the suddenness of symptoms and educate you about bladder leakage, we have a blog on the matters of the bladder.

Are you afraid that laughing too hard, coughing, or sneezing may start an unwanted drip down your legs? Well, you’re not alone. 1 in 3 women all over the world experience these unexpected leaks of urine during menopause. This condition is most common in women over 50. 25 million adult Americans experience incontinence in one form or another.

While light bladder leakage is fairly common, people are still too embarrassed to talk about it. But to seek help, we do need to talk about our problems.

Yes, we’re opening up the conversation on bladder leakage or incontinence. Because of menopause, your levels of estrogen's change. This causes a consequent change in the strength of your pelvic floor and causes bladder leakage or incontinence in menopausal women.

Let us understand the three types of incontinence that affect women in menopause:

1. Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI)- This is when weak pelvic muscles let urine escape. It is most common in older women.

2. Overactive Bladder (OAB)- This form is also known as the urgency incontinence. It affects more women than men and restricts them from a lot of daily life activities due to the fear that they will have to urinate suddenly and have no bathroom nearby. This also hampers sleep.

3. Mixed Incontinence (MI)- This is when you leak urine while doing daily activities and also have the urge to pee.

In some cases, women have also experienced incontinence during sexual stimulation. That’s a form of urgency incontinence. It doesn’t pose a risk to them or their partner as such, but is quite an uncomfortable and undesirable experience. Emptying your bladder just before sex can help manage this to some extent.

Needless to say, you don’t have to suffer light bladder leakage in silence. There are treatment options your doctor could offer. But before resorting to those, we have for you some easy to take measures.

Some helpful options you could try at home include to manage incontinence are:

1. Don’t over hydrate- 40-50 ounces of fluids including juices etc. are enough to keep you hydrated all day.

2. While you’re awake empty your bladder every 2-3 hours.

3. Avoid large fluid intake just before bedtime. This will let you sleep through the night.

4. Cut down caffeinated drinks and carbonated beverages.

5. Try Kegel exercises.

6. Stock your self with ample amount of bladder weakness liners and pads.

In some cases, even behavioral therapies help deal with incontinence. For example, bladder training is one such therapy. It teaches people to control or manage the urge of urinating and gradually expands the intervals between going to the bathroom.

This may sound unconventional but some women even try vaginal weight training to strengthen their pelvic floor. Small weights are held by the vagina to tighten the muscles.

Another form of therapy is pelvic muscle rehabilitation to prevent leakage.

We hope you are comforted and don’t feel alone or embarrassed about this very natural side effect of menopause anymore. Your body has done so much for you all your life. Even as you’re growing old it’s changing and keeping up with you.

You’ve earned degrees, run families, and given to your community. You are an all-rounder, a multifaceted woman who deserves the best of healthcare and well-being.

Honor your strong, beautiful body for all it does for you and give it the care it needs whether it is in the form of exercise, diet modifications, bladder training, or getting yourself bladder leakage products.

Let us take a step together towards a world where women are seen in all their glory even as they age.