Did you guys know that November is National Bladder Health Awareness Month? I figured there’s no better time than this month to discuss a topic that some may be embarrassed or shy to talk about, but we are all family here! Yep, if you’re a new reader I want you guys to know, once you visit my blog you instantly become family. With us being family and all, I pride myself on creating a space that we can all be open, transparent, and even discuss topics that may be “taboo” to discuss to some. I believe there’s something so powerful when women come together to let other women know they aren’t alone in whatever it is they are going through.
With that being said, today I want to talk to you guys about a condition that affects approximately 20 million women across the U.S. alone, and that is urinary incontinence (UI)! UI is the involuntary loss of bladder control. Can you believe out of the 20 million women who are suffering from UI, only 25% of women seek care? If I’m honest, even for myself, I just assumed this is something that either happens as you have more children (three pregnancies later, I can definitely say my pelvic muscles aren’t as tight as they were pre-motherhood days) or as you get older. I also assumed it was just a part of life and there’s nothing you can do about it. But UI is no joke and can be a serious health condition. I’m grateful as I’ve done more research, I’ve learned there are actions you can take to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles which aides in getting rid of your UI symptoms.
But before I jump into that, let’s discuss what causes UI in most women:
UI can be caused by weakened pelvic floor pelvic floor muscles. While most of us are familiar with our pelvic muscles weakening from pregnancy, there are many other causes as well such as increasing age, hysterectomy, diabetes, menopause, and elevated BMI. Who knew right? Well now we all do! There are even different types of UI, such as:
Stress UI: With a hearty laugh, working out, or even a sneeze leads to leakage
Urgency UI: A sudden need to urinate or an intense need to urinate often, followed by involuntary release
Mixed UI: Bladder leakage isn’t limited to one type. You may experience one or both
You can visit pelvicscore.com to take a free quiz to better understand your bladder health.
The GOOD NEWS is, there are treatment options for UI and they don’t involve surgery or medication. The top ones being:
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy: A PFPT can show you exercises that can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.
Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises: Commonly known as “kegels”, these are an exercise that can be performed anywhere by contracting and then relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor.
leva®: The thing with the two previously mentioned treatment options are you would need to schedule and in-office visit with a PFPT so they can observe to assure that you’re doing the exercises correctly. And with the unaided pelvic floor muscle exercises, if you aren’t doing them right, you might not be helping anything. However, leva® is a prescription-only, intravaginal accelerometer‐based approach that detects real‐time pelvic floor muscle movement and connects to your smartphone to display your progress. It mirrors the motion of your pelvic floor so you can visibly see if you’re training correctly and consistently. And within a few weeks, you can improve your muscle strength drastically. Even better, all it takes is 2 ½ minutes, twice a day. Good stuff right? Find out more about leva at knowleva.com
