Many people hear the words bladder incontinence and think this means fully wetting their pants. People try to separate bladder incontinence from “just a little leakage.” But actually, these are all the same thing. 

Bladder incontinence, also known as urinary incontinence, urinary or urine leakage, and bladder leakage, is the involuntary loss of urine. Nothing in the definition puts a limit on the volume. That means that any involuntary loss of urine qualifies as incontinence, whether it be a drop when you clear your throat or a full, pants changing flood after trying to jump on the trampoline. 

If you’re experiencing any involuntary loss of urine, it’s bladder incontinence, and it can be fixed. 

What are the types of Bladder Incontinence? 

There are a few different types of bladder incontinence: stress incontinence, urge incontinence, mixed incontinence, overflow incontinence and functional incontinence. 

Stress Incontinence 

Stress incontinence is what most people think about when they think about incontinence. This is the type of urine leakage that occurs when you cough, sneeze, laugh, jump, run and lift heavy things. This happens when the muscle coordination in the pelvic floor is not working properly.  

Some people think this occurs when the pelvic floor muscles are too weak but that’s not always the case. Sometimes urine leakage is due to the muscles being too weak, but many times they are due to the muscles being too tight or overactive. 

When a muscle is too tight and overactive, it acts like a weak muscle. Think about it like a clenched fist. If you clench your fist all day long and at the end of the day you try to shake someone’s hand, how might that feel? Weak? Uncoordinated? Maybe even sore? The same thing happens to the pelvic floor. If you are constantly clenching your pelvic floor (which many people are unaware they are doing) then it will not be able to give the extra contraction needed to support the cough, sneeze, laugh or jump and boom, bladder incontinence. 

Urge Incontinence 

Urge incontinence is the type of urine leakage that occurs when you feel a strong and sudden urge to go to the bathroom, you are rushing to get there but can’t get there on time. Many people think this only happens when you have an overactive bladder but this can actually happen to anyone for a number of reasons including neurological issues, bladder irritants, constipation, tight muscles in the abdomen, pelvic floor and hips, and medication side effects. 

What is important to remember is the difference between urge and urgency. Bladder urge is what you experience when your bladder stretches out and tells you it is time to go to the bathroom. Bladder urgency is when there is a panic or rushing associated with the urge where you feel like you have to get to the bathroom RIGHT. THIS. SECOND. Urge incontinence is associated with a sense of urgency.

Mixed Incontinence 

Mixed incontinence is when you are experiencing both stress incontinence and urge incontinence and is very common in people who are experiencing pelvic floor overactivity but can be seen across the board. For example, this can be very common with pregnant and postpartum people and those experiencing chronic prostatitis. 

Overflow Incontinence

Overflow incontinence is a type of incontinence that occurs when you are unable to sense that your bladder is full and the bladder can no longer hold urine inside. This often occurs without urge and people don’t always notice this until they go to the bathroom and see urine on their underwear. Sometimes this occurs due to outside pressure to the bladder like an abdominal mass or prolapse. Sometimes this is due to neurological conditions or impaired detrusor (bladder muscle) activity like in multiple sclerosis, diabetes or spinal cord injuries. Sometimes this can occur as a medication side effect or birth injury.

Functional Incontinence

This is a form of incontinence that occurs due to a medical condition or environmental factors inhibiting your ability to get to the bathroom on-time and safely. This may include a neurological condition like Parkinson’s Disease or MS, an orthopedic condition like a joint replacement, a cognitive condition like dementia, or an environmental factor like obstacles being in the way.

If any of these sound like you and you’re ready to stop wearing only black to exercise, would love to be able to forget the knowledge of where every public bathroom in every store in your surrounding area is and generally feel free and unfettered by your bladder activity, reach out and we’d be happy to get you moving in the right direction.

To learn more about the pelvic floor and what it does for us, click here.