Worried About Your Water Works?

My Weekly's favourite GP Dr Sarah Jarvis from TV and radio writes for you

- Dr Sarah Jarvis

If you ever leak urine when you don't mean to, you have incontinence- and you're in very good company. While it may be a topic of embarrassment, it's incredibly common in women. Up to 2 in 5 women experience it, and it causes significant problems for more than 1 in 12. Too many believe it's a natural part of the ageing process- but it doesn't need to be.

As a GP, I sometimes think that incontinence is the last taboo. I rarely see women in my practice who come in to tell me they have it. Yet if I ask, so many admit to occasional accidents, or to adapting their lives to prevent them, that it feels more women have it than not.

The most common form of incontinence is stress incontinence - when you leak urine sometimes if you cough, sneeze, laugh or exercise. Often, you only leak small amounts. It's usually caused by weakness in your pelvic floor - a band of muscle and tough connective tissue around the entrance to your vagina, that holds your womb and bladder in place. The muscles wrap around the bottom of your bladder and lower bowel.

Childbirth can weaken your pelvic floor, but so can lots of other factors. Anything that puts more pressure on your tummy-constipation, coughing, being overweight, etc - increases the pressure on your pelvic floor. But after the menopause, dropping levels of the female hormone oestrogen can lead to the weakening of the pelvic floor. So too can surgery such as a hysterectomy.