.png){kind=logo}
Incontinence is more than just peeing your pants, although that is the most common form of incontinence. One can also have fecal (poop) incontinence and uncontrolled leaking of gas as forms of incontinence. Did you ever think of gas as being a pelvic floor problem? It can be.
Urinary incontinence also can be categorized into different types. The most common I see is stress urinary incontinence, sometimes abbreviated SUI. This is incontinence from a sudden increase in pressure from coughing, sneezing, laughing, lifting heavy, running or jumping. Sometimes the solution to this is strengthening the pelvic floor and sometimes it is changing the breath and body mechanics of the athlete.
Urinary incontinence can also be categorized as overflow incontinence. This is when a person can't make it to the toilet on time and leaks urine. Sometimes this is from weak pelvic floor muscles, not listening to the body's signals when the bladder gets full or the association of coming home and needing to go to the toilet right away. This is what we call "key in lock" syndrome, as in unlocking the door triggers the bladder to need to empty and the person can't make it inside to the toilet fast enough.
Less common, but it still happens, is bowel or fecal incontinence. This is often more embarrassing and traumatic for clients, understandably. This could come from birth trauma, pelvic surgery, pelvic cancer treatment or chronic constipation. The treatments are similar to urinary incontinence.
Uncontrollable gas can also be a pelvic floor problem. Excess gas could be a digestive issue as well, and the therapist should be able to figure that out for you and refer you to the proper healthcare professional if that is the issue.
I recently had a client who was a new mom and her main pelvic floor complaint was uncontrollable gas with certain yoga poses. This was a pelvic floor issue and not a digestive issue. We talked about her breathing and what her pelvic floor was doing in those poses and helped her not to pass gas with yoga so she could return to the yoga classes she loved instead of only being able to stream yoga classes at home.
If you have any of these incontinence issues we would love to be able to help you not have to worry about them and be able to enjoy the social and physical activities you love without risking embarrassment of leakage of body fluids and worrying where the nearest bathroom is.
Often treatment for incontinence is just a few visits. You can look back to my previous post on how I changed incontinence for my patient in just 4 visits.
Call or email today to find out how we can fix your incontinence.
If you don't have this problem, but know someone who does, please share this with them.
Subscribe to this blog to keep up to date on all things pelvic health, sexual health and physical therapy.