Many men let bladder weakness interfere with their lifestyle by cutting the things they love from their life, constantly checking to see where the nearest toilet is and worrying whether they might smell of urine or if leaks are showing through clothing. It doesn’t have to be that way. With the right lifestyle changes you can socialise, exercise and do all your daily activities with relaxed confidence.
The expert physiotherapists at Proactive Physiotherapy will understand your condition and custom design a workable solution to suit your lifestyle and help with your bladder weakness.
Contact Proactive Physiotherapy today for a confidential discussion on your particular condition. We’ll get you back doing all the things you love.
The kidneys filter unneeded substances from the blood stream and send them to the bladder, a muscular bag which can stretch to hold up to 500ml when full. At half-full nerves tell the brain that it’s time to urinate and send urine down the urethra, which is kept closed by two sphincter muscles. The inner sphincter will open when the bladder is full but the outer sphincter muscle can be voluntarily held shut to maintain control over urination. The pelvic floor muscles lie beneath the bladder and around the urethra to keep them working correctly. However, for some people there’s an interruption to this chain of events causing a leakage.
There is no single cause of male bladder weakness but common factors include:
The main types of bladder weakness in men are listed below. We’ve used the correct medical terms so that you’ll be familiar with them should you choose to discuss your symptoms with your GP.
Also known as an overactive bladder, this is the most common bladder weakness type for men. You experience a sudden urge to urinate and the bladder involuntarily expels urine. This is usually due to interference in the nerve signals between bladder and brain, often linked to either an enlarged prostate or as a result of prostate surgery.
You may also find that you need to urinate more frequently than the usual 4-8 times a day, and maybe also at night too. However, in certain cases you can ‘train’ your bladder to urinate less frequently and to avoid urinating at night. Your physiotherapist can help with this urge incontinence condition.
Around 10% of male bladder weakness occurs with a sudden physical exertion such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising or heavy lifting. It usually only involves small amounts of urine and is generally connected to a weakening of the pelvic floor muscles. Your physiotherapist can get you on track with exercises to help with this stress incontinence condition.
Some 10-30% of men experience mixed incontinence symptoms. Usually it’s a combination of Stress Incontinence and Urge Incontinence. If you happen to have both bladder weakness types, there’s usually one that causes more of a problem than the other, so you should focus on dealing with the most frequent symptom first. Again this is a job which your physiotherapist can help you with.
This is when the bladder doesn’t empty completely and continues to leak after urinating. This is also common with an enlarged prostate or weakened pelvic floor muscles. Your physiotherapist can help you to strengthen the muscles that often lead to Post-Micturition dribble.
This is a constant or episodic flow of urine, usually caused by an obstruction or nerve damage. If you’re experiencing this, it’s probably best to get it checked by your doctor as they are able to identify symptoms and diagnose this specific type of male incontinence.
This is an inability to reach the toilet in time because of the difficulties caused by physical or mental illness.
Damage to the nerves as a result of illness (such as Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis or brain injury) can affect the way the brain and bladder communicate. This results in an inability to control the bladder or empty it completely.
There are many types of male bladder weakness. Certainly, everyone’s experience is different. So if you’re unsure of your symptoms, it might be an idea to keep a diary recording your urination pattern for a week so you can monitor what happens. You’ll then have a record to discuss with your doctor or physiotherapist continence advisor should you wish to.
Contact Proactive Physiotherapy today for a confidential discussion on your particular condition. We’ll get you back doing all the things you love.
