You feel like you’ve become a prisoner to your overactive bladder (OAB) — that gotta go feeling overrides everything in life and often leads to leakage.
We first want you to know that you’re not alone in your struggles — OAB is a leading cause of urinary incontinence and affects 20% of the global population, with women outpacing men.
Since November is National Bladder Awareness Month, the team here at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley, under the expert guidance of Dr. Fernando Otero, also wants you to know that there is a solution for urinary incontinence caused by OAB in the form of Botox®. Yes, that Botox.
Let’s first take a look at what we’re up against with this common form of urinary incontinence. In reality, OAB is a catchall term for several different bladder issues that lead to a constellation of symptoms that include:
These symptoms can develop for a wide range of reasons that include:
As you can see, several risk factors are unique to women, which is why females develop OAB more than men.
You might scratch your head at Botox being a treatment for OAB since it’s so widely known for its cosmetic uses and getting rid of wrinkles.
Well, the same active ingredient that relaxes the muscles that contract to form wrinkles on your face can also calm the muscles around your bladder.
In more detail, when you have to urinate, nerve signals reach the muscles around your bladder, causing them to contract, which is what creates the urge to pee. With Botox, we’re able to disrupt the nerve signaling so your bladder won’t contract uncontrollably.
Now, here’s the best part — you only need two rounds of Botox injections each year to control urinary incontinence caused by OAB. After your injection, you can realize results within two weeks, with optimal results at week 12. From there, each follow-up treatment should continue your great results.
As for how well Botox works to control incontinence, according to clinical trials, patients treated with Botox had three or fewer leakage episodes each day.
So, if you’d like to take back control of your life in the face of an overactive bladder, we invite you to contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to find out whether Botox is right for you.
