There are different types and reasons for loss of bladder control or urinary incontinence. Basically it is a problem where you cannot hold your urine until you can get to a restroom.

Loss of bladder control affects both young and old men and women and millions of people suffer from incontinence in the United States. Most of the time it is a temporary condition and stems from weakened pelvic floor muscles but sometimes it can be from a medical condition.

There are several reasons by women may experience incontinence twice as often as men. The anatomy of the female urinary tract makes bladder problems more likely in women. The physical affects of pregnancy,

Childbirth and later in life menopause also account for this difference.  But certainly, both men and women can suffer from incontinence because of nerve damage and various illnesses that are associated with this problem. Contrary to popular belief, loss of bladder control is also associated with aging but is not necessarily a function of the aging process.

Commonly, it is a problem of weak pelvic floor muscles that is responsible for incontinence in women. These muscles help hold and release the flow of urine. One way to isolate which muscles are involved is to try and stop the flow of urine several times when you are on the toilet. If you can do this you have found the right muscles that may be weak and need to be strengthened. You may have heard of kegel exercises that you can do to make you pelvic floor muscles stronger.

Here is what is happening. Your kidneys remove waste from your body and pass it on to your bladder. A tube called the urethra connects to the bladder and it is through this tube that urine flows out of the body. When the bladder needs to be emptied you feel the urge to urinate, your bladder contracts to push the urine out of the bladder into the urethra. Then the sphincter muscles that surround the urethra relax and the urine passes out. If this sphincter muscle is weak you can leak urine when you cough, sneeze, laugh or lift something that can be very embarrassing.

There is good news. This type of incontinence is something you can improve at home with biofeedback devices that both tell you whether you are doing kegel exercises correctly and provide resistance so when you practice your pelvic floor muscles will become stronger more rapidly. You can do these exercises in the privacy of your own home. Now you don’t have to put up with incontinence because it is a treatable condition. So before you by those Depend undergarments, give kegels a try.