Urinary incontinence is any involuntary loss of urine. The risk of developing incontinence increases with age, but younger people may also have it. Women are more likely to suffer from incontinence than men.
Urinary incontinence occurs in 14.5% of people in Asia and has adverse social, occupational, domestic, physical, sexual and psychological effects in individuals.
Incontinence is common but people with this condition delay consulting their doctors and go without treatment because they may perceive it as part of ageing or they are unaware of available treatments. Some may feel embarrassed discussing it with anyone.
If incontinence is common for you or affects your quality of life, please seek medical advice. In most cases, there are various treatment options for urinary incontinence. These include pelvic floor exercises (also known as Kegel exercises), drug treatment, or surgery. Your urologist can discuss with you on the best treatment option after consultation.
There are basically 3 different kinds of incontinence, namely stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge incontinence (UUI) and mixed incontinence. We are mainly discussing SUI in this patient education pamphlet.