Do you worry where the nearest toilet is?  Try to avoid exercising, coughing or sneezing due to fear of leakage? Feel you have no control over your bladder? Find your bladder’s controlling your life?

If so, you’re not alone. Bladder weakness affects 1 in 3 people and is more common than hay fever. However, the good news is that pelvic health physiotherapy provided by our DynamicHealth team at Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust could help if you experience one of these conditions:

• Stress incontinence - urinary leaking with certain activities.
• Overactive bladder - having a sudden desire to go to the toilet immediately with possible leaking of urine before reaching the toilet. There may be a need to visit the toilet more frequently than normal.
• Mixed urinary incontinence – a combination of stress incontinence and over active bladder.
• Small to moderate prolapse of the front and/or back vaginal wall(s) – weakening of the support structures that support the vagina, resulting in bulging of the pelvic organs into the vagina.
• Pain related pelvic floor dysfunction e.g. vaginismus.
• Post-natal pelvic girdle pain, perineal trauma and diastasis rectus abdominis.
• Faecal incontinence – leakage of faeces.
• Obstructive defecation – difficult emptying the bowel, which may or may not be associated with constipation.
• Urinary incontinence and/ or erectile dysfunction following prostate surgery.

“Urinary incontinence is common but not normal,” explains Gail Stephens, Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapist.

“One in three women and one in nine men experience leakage, however  there are many effective self-management strategies that can be used so it’s important not to suffer in silence or feel too embarrassed to seek help.

“For overactive bladder symptoms it’s all about having a happy bladder with good pelvic floor muscle control. For stress urinary incontinence (leakage on exertion like coughing and exercise) it’s all about improving pelvic floor muscle function.” 

World Continence Week (WCW) runs from 17^th-23^rd June 2019 and is an annual initiative managed and run by the International Continence Society (ICS) to raise awareness of incontinence related issues such as bladder and bowel weakness, pelvic pain and other debilitating conditions which impact greatly on people’s quality of life.

You can download a ‘bladder health advice’ leaflet and pelvic floor exercises for men and women from our website here http://www.eoemskservice.nhs.uk/nhs-services/pelvic-health-physio.

You can also refer yourself for physiotherapy by calling our dedicated Physio Advice Line on 0300 555 0210.