The experience of uncontrollably leaking urine can be an embarrassing issue for many people. Urinary incontinence is a loss of bladder control that’s commonly seen in older adults and women who have given birth or gone through menopause. Urinary tract infections (UTIs), pelvic floor disorders and an enlarged prostate are other causes.
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Urinary incontinence is a condition that impacts many people’s lives. When you have incontinence, you may experience bladder control issues and leak urine. This leakage is often uncontrollable and can negatively impact your life.
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Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy
Your urinary system is made up of the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. These parts do several jobs. They filter, store and remove waste from your body. Your kidneys are the filters of your body. Waste products are removed from your blood by the kidneys, creating urine. The urine then moves down through two thin tubes called the ureters. The ureters connect to the bladder, where the urine will collect until it’s time to leave the body. Your bladder is like a storage tank — once the bladder is full, the brain sends a signal that it’s time to urinate. Urine then leaves the bladder when a muscle opens up (sphincter), allowing the urine to flow freely out of the body through the urethra.
When this system is working smoothly, you usually have time to get to a bathroom before needing to urinate and you don’t experience any leakage of urine. Urinary incontinence can happen when these parts don’t operate as they should. This can happen for many different reasons throughout your life.
Many people think that incontinence is a normal part of aging that can’t be helped. While it is true that your risk of incontinence increases as you get older, there are also treatments available to help you manage this condition. Incontinence doesn’t have to disrupt your life and keep you from being active.
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There are several different types of incontinence. These types have different causes, characteristics and triggers for urine leakage. Knowing the type of incontinence is often an important part of the diagnosis and treatment plan for incontinence.
The types of incontinence include:
Incontinence can happen to anyone. However, it’s more common in certain groups and at certain times in your life. Incontinence is much more common in women than in men. This is often related to pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. Each of these experiences can cause a woman’s pelvic support muscles to weaken over time.
You’re also more likely to experience incontinence as you get older. The muscles that support your pelvic organs can become weaker over time, causing you to experience leakage issues.
Your body constantly changes throughout your life. As you age, the muscles that support your pelvic organs can weaken. This means that your bladder and urethra have less support — often leading to urine leakage. Your risk for developing incontinence as you age might be higher if you have a chronic health condition, have given birth to children, went through menopause, have an enlarged prostate or have had prostate cancer surgery. It’s important to talk to your healthcare provider over time about the risks of incontinence and ways you can manage it without interference to your daily life.
Incontinence is much more commonly seen in women than in men. A large part of this is because of pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. Each of these events in a woman’s life can lead to bladder control issues. Pregnancy can be a short-term cause of incontinence and the bladder control issues typically get better after the baby is born. Some women experience incontinence after delivery because of the strain childbirth takes on the pelvic floor muscles. When these muscles are weakened, you’re more likely to experience leakage issues. Menopause causes your body to go through a lot of change. Your hormones (estrogen in particular) change during menopause and this can alter your bladder control.
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Men can also experience incontinence, but it isn’t as common as it is in women.
There are many different reasons that you could experience incontinence. These causes can vary depending on if you’re a woman or man. Some causes are temporary health conditions that usually go away once treated. In those cases, your incontinence also usually stops once the condition is treated. Incontinence can be caused by long-term (chronic) medical conditions. When you experience leakage issues because of a chronic condition, it’s usually something you will have to manage over a longer period of time. Even with treatment, chronic conditions usually don’t go away. Incontinence may have to be managed over time as a symptom of your chronic condition.
Temporary or short-term causes of incontinence can include:
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Chronic or long-term causes of incontinence can include:
During pregnancy, your body goes through a lot of physical changes. As your uterus stretches to hold the growing baby, a few things happen. Your bladder can be squished by the expanding baby, making your bladder hold less than before. You might experience an increased urgency to pee during pregnancy because your bladder cannot hold as much as before. This might become even more challenging towards the end of pregnancy when the baby is at its largest.
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Another reason for incontinence during pregnancy is the weakening of your pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are the support structures for all of the organs in your pelvis. During pregnancy, they can be stretched and weakened as your uterus expands.
The main symptom of incontinence is a leakage of urine. This could be a constant dripping of urine or an occasional experience of leakage. If you have incontinence, you might have large amounts or small amounts of leaked urine. You might experience leakage for a wide variety of reasons — often depending on the type of incontinence you have.
You might leak urine when you:
Often, the diagnosis process for incontinence will start with a conversation with your healthcare provider about your medical history and bladder control issues. Your provider might ask you questions like:
These questions can help your provider figure out a pattern with your leakage, which often points to a specific type of incontinence. When your provider is asking about your medical history, it’s important to list all of your medications because some medications can cause incontinence. Your provider will also ask about any past pregnancies and the details around each delivery.
There are also several specific tests that your provider might do to diagnose incontinence, including:
While at home, your provider might recommend you keep track of any leakage in a journal for a few days. By writing down how often you experience incontinence issues over the span of a few days, your provider might be able to identify a pattern. This can really help in the diagnosis process. Make sure to write down how often you need to urinate, how much you are able to go each time, if you leak between trips to the bathroom and any activities you might be doing when you leak urine. You’ll then bring this journal with you to your appointment and talk about it with your provider.
It’s important to know that incontinence can be treated. Many people believe that it’s something that just goes along with aging and is an unavoidable issue. If you find that incontinence is disturbing your daily activities and causing you to miss out on things you typically enjoy, talk to your healthcare provider. There are a wide range of options to treat incontinence.
There are many different factors that your healthcare provider will consider when creating a treatment plan for your incontinence. The type of incontinence and the ways it affects your life are both big considerations. Your provider will also talk to you about the type of treatment you are most comfortable with. There are three main types of treatment you can explore for incontinence — medications, lifestyle changes and surgery. Each option has pros and cons that your provider will discuss with you.
Medications to treat incontinence
There are quite a few medications that can reduce leakage. Some of these drugs stabilize the muscle contractions that cause problems with an overactive bladder. Other medications actually do the opposite thing — relaxing muscles to allow your bladder to empty completely. Hormone replacement therapies can — often involving replacing estrogen that’s decreased during menopause — may also help restore normal bladder function.
In many cases, medications can work very well to return normal function to the bladder. Your provider will carefully select a medication that matches your specific needs. Often, your provider will start you on a low dose of the medication and then increase it slowly. This is done to try and reduce your risks of side effects and to keep track of how well the medication is working to treat your incontinence.
Common medications that can be used to treat incontinence include:
Lifestyle changes to manage incontinence
Sometimes, there are changes to your everyday life that can actually help your incontinence. These changes often include exercises you can do to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, changes to your normal habits and an improved diet. Some people notice improvements by making these changes at home and don’t need additional treatment.
Talk to your healthcare provider about these home treatment options for incontinence before starting any of them. You might not be able to treat all types of incontinence with these lifestyle changes. Your provider might also make detailed suggestions to you about the best lifestyle changes to try given your incontinence diagnosis.
Lifestyle changes to help improve incontinence can include:
There are also devices that you can use at home to help with incontinence. One over-the-counter device that you can use is a:
Procedures and surgeries to treat incontinence
If other non-invasive treatment options have failed to treat your incontinence, there are several procedures that your provider might suggest. These procedures range from simple injections to more complicated surgeries. Your provider will discuss the best procedural option for you based on the type of incontinence you have and your symptoms.
Procedures to treat incontinence can include:
Kegel exercises are a simple way to build strength in your pelvic floor muscles. These exercises are done by lifting, holding and then relaxing your pelvic floor muscles. You can find these muscles by stopping the flow of urine mid-stream while you’re urinating. Only do this until you learn how to find the muscles — stopping the flow of urine mid-stream isn’t healthy over a long period of time.
When you’re doing Kegel exercises, start small. Only hold it for a few second. Over time you can slowly work your way up to longer and longer stretches of holding the muscles tight.
Unlike other types of workouts, no one can tell when you’re doing Kegel exercises. Aim to do several sets of Kegel exercises (a set is made up of 10 exercises) twice a day.
Different events throughout your life can lead to many of the things that cause incontinence. The muscles that support your pelvic organs can weaken over time. For women, these muscles can also be weakened by big life events like pregnancy and childbirth. However, in the same way you work out to build strength in your legs or arms, you can do exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. Doing exercises to strengthen your pelvic muscles may not prevent you from having any issues with incontinence, but it can help you regain control of your bladder. Maintaining a healthy body weight can also help with bladder control. Talk to your healthcare provider about the best ways to maintain strong pelvic floor muscles throughout your life.
Sometimes incontinence is a short-term issue that will go away once the cause ends. This is often the case when you have a condition like a urinary tract infection (UTI). Once treated, frequent urination and leakage problems caused by a UTI typically end. This is also true for some women who experience bladder control issues during pregnancy. For many, the issues end in the weeks after delivery. However, other causes of incontinence are long-term and related to conditions that are managed throughout your life. If you have a chronic condition like diabetes or multiple sclerosis, you may have incontinence for a long period of time. In those cases, it’s important to talk to your provider about the best ways to manage your incontinence so that it doesn’t interfere with your life.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
It can be embarrassing to talk about bathroom habits with your healthcare provider. This embarrassment shouldn’t stop you from treating incontinence, though. Often, your healthcare provider can help figure out the cause of your bladder control issue and help make it better. You don’t need to deal with it alone. Talk to your healthcare provider about the best ways to treat incontinence so that you can lead a full and active life without worrying about leakage.
Last reviewed on 10/23/2020.
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