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.

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) means that you leak urine when there is a sudden increase in pressure on your bladder. These may occur during certain activities like coughing, sneezing, or laughing, exercises like running or jumping, or something really common like lifting heavy things such as groceries. For people with severe form of SUI, they may even leak on sudden movement eg; moving up from a sitting to standing position. During the time when the pressure on the bladder increases, your urethra or urinary sphincter cannot resist the pressure of a full bladder, and you will leak urine.

Causes of SUI for females

• Hormone deficiencies
• Weak pelvic floor muscles
• Menopause and ageing
• Obesity
• Persistent conditions causing cough or constipation
• Childbirth
• Previous pelvic surgery

Common risk factors for males include:

• Pelvic surgery
• Prostate surgery

Click here to find out more about the services and treatments available. 

• Associate Professor Edmund Chiong
• Assistant Professor David Consigliere
• Professor Kesavan Esuvaranathan
• Associate Professor Tiong Ho Yee
• Assistant Professor Chua Wei Jin
• Dr Joe Lee King Chien (Li Jingzheng)  
• Dr Wu Qing Hui
• Assistant Professor Benjamin Goh
• Dr Melissa Tay Hui Wen
• Dr Lu Jirong
  
• Dr Kelven Chen
  
• Dr Wang Ziting
  
• Dr Chia Jun Yang