Risk factors

There are many risk factors that may cause urinary incontinence. It is commonly believed that incontinence is caused by growing old, but growing old is just one of many risk factors – not every elderly person experiences urine loss.

Most common conditions which may induce urinary incontinence:

• load on the pelvic floor muscles caused by obesity, pregnancy or giving birth several times
• altered uterus position due to e.g. tumours or weakening pelvic floor muscles
• overgrowth of prostate (in men)
• menopause (in women)
• spinal cord trauma
• multiple sclerosis
• chronic constipation
• bladder inflammation
• diuretic medication
• nephrolithiasis
• diabetes
• urogenital system tumoursacute urinary tract inflammation
• mental disorders
• anxiety disorders
• Parkinson’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease
• inborn defects
• surgery
• stroke

If the incontinence is caused by a disease which can be cured, then usually after the treatment the urine loss episodes cease to happen. In other cases it is often possible to decrease or eliminate urinary incontinence episodes by different kinds of treatment.

NOTE: If incontinence appeared during the course of a disease it is worth to ask for a doctor’s advice on it when visiting his office. The sooner one tries to prevent urine loss development, the bigger the chance that these episodes will be limited to minimum or even completely eliminated.