Urinary Leakage is Not a Normal Sign of Aging

I was doing some research on peri-menopause this morning, went to WebMD to look up the symptoms of peri-menopause, and found that urine leakage with coughing or sneezing was listed as one of the symptoms. 🤔

Seeing it listed as a symptom of peri-menopause makes it seem that it’s normal. If you are going through this time of your life, you should just expect to deal with incontinence? 🤷‍♀️

⭐ IT IS NOT NORMAL ⭐ (Did the all-caps make you feel like I was yelling? I am yelling!) It is common, but it’s not normal. Let me explain why.

During menopause and peri-menopause your body produces less estrogen. It helps to keep your vaginal tissues “fluffy.” This fluffiness makes it easier for the muscles to close off the urethra.

So what happens if you have less estrogen? The tissue becomes thinner and drier. Now the muscles have to work harder to close the urethra.

If you had any issues with your muscles before peri-menopause, now the issues become more apparent. The fluffy tissue isn’t there to help you out anymore. So it will appear that incontinence happens as a result of peri-menopause and a decrease in estrogen. In actuality, you may have had a pelvic floor muscle issue for years, losing the estrogen just doesn’t let you cheat anymore. Does this make sense?

Thinking of incontinence as a normal sign of aging implies that you can’t do anything about it. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Incontinence is often easily treatable.

Do you have questions about normal aging and the pelvic floor? Feel free to message me. 🙂

AUTHOR

Dr. Katy Rush

The Perfect Pelvis

"We Help Active Adults & Athletes Get Back To Workouts and Sports They Enjoy without surgery, stopping activities they love, or relying on pain medicine."
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