Back To School Bladder Incontinence Tips | Tennessee Valley Urology Center


Are you going back to school as a teacher or student, but battling urinary incontinence? If so, you’re not alone–urinary incontinence affects millions of men and women of all ages. We know the condition can be an embarrassing one. Your friends at the Tennessee Valley Urology Center have put together a few strategies to help improve your symptoms so you can better cope with the day-to-day challenges of your condition.

  • Experts say that about 3% of all teenagers have urinary incontinence. Teens with UI are at a greater risk of performing poorly in school.

  • About 25% of women will experience urinary stress incontinence for about a year following childbirth.

  • A weak bladder can deter women from participating in school sports and other extracurricular activities.

Here’s what you can do to improve your symptoms:

Perform kegel exercises regularly.
You can do kegel exercises anywhere–walking, sitting, or standing. It’s the only way to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles which support your bladder and bowel. Weak pelvic floor muscles can lead to urine leakage when coughing, laughing, or sneezing, the need to go to the bathroom more frequently, or an urgency to get to the bathroom but start leaking on the way. Learn how to do pelvic floor exercises here.

Retrain your bladder.
Because muscles control the bladder, that means those muscles can be strengthened much like working out the rest of your body. Bladder training is a behavioral therapy intended to increase your time between urinating. Bladder training can help to reduce your urinary incontinence symptoms by helping your bladder hold more urine and prevent it from being overactive.

Maintain a healthy body weight.
If you are overweight or obese, you have a greater risk of developing urinary incontinence. To combat this, try eating a healthy diet and following an exercise program to get down do a healthy weight. Even just a 5% reduction of your BMI can reduce your risk of further symptoms.

Are you having difficulty with UI symptoms? The doctors at Tennessee Valley Urology Center want to help you! Contact us today or visit our website and learn more about our center and services.