There’s a lot you have to deal with when you age — your skin loosens, your joints ache more, and you have a little less energy than you used to. For many women, we can add urinary incontinence to this laundry list of unwelcome developments.
In fact, more than 40% of women aged 65 and older have urinary incontinence, and women outpace men by two to one when it comes to this condition.
At Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Fernando Otero and our team of women’s health experts don’t believe that urinary incontinence (UI) is an inevitable fact of life for women. We do admit that women are more at risk, and we dive into that here, but we also want you to know that there are solutions.
Before we get into the age factor, let’s explore why women are more at risk of developing UI than men.
First, there are life events that are unique to women that can affect their urinary tracts, such as:
The first two events are more obvious — pregnancy can place pressure on your bladder, which can lead to stress incontinence. And, when you give birth to your child, the delivery can temporarily damage the nerves around your bladder, which can lead to overactive bladder.
The connection to menopause is due to the sudden drop in hormones, which can weaken the support structures around your pelvic organs, including your bladder. As a result, you can experience involuntary leakage.
Structurally speaking, a woman’s urethra is much shorter than a man’s, which means there are fewer muscles to hold urine back.
The gender difference that boosts a woman’s risk for urinary incontinence is a strong influencer, which explains why up to 37% of women between the ages of 20 and 39 report some degree of the problem.
Now, let’s add age to this already skewed mix and you can see why so many older women struggle with urinary incontinence. As you age, muscles naturally weaken, including those that support your pelvic organs — namely your pelvic floor. As well, the sphincters that hold urine and the muscles that surround your urethra can also weaken with age. Your bladder itself can also feel the effects of aging.
And let’s not forget that aging can simply hamper your ability to make it to the bathroom in time, which is a type of continence we call functional incontinence.
While these aging processes affect men, too, women are already at a disadvantage going in thanks to the female-only circumstances we outlined above.
No matter your age, we don’t feel that UI is something you should resign yourself to. We offer a number of solutions, including:
As you can see, you have options, and we’re happy to help you find the right combination that works for your urinary incontinence.
To get started, please contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to set up an appointment.
