FAQ

You are not the first and definitely not the last patient suffering on incontinence (uncontrolled losing urine or…peeing your pants). Millions of patients visit their urologists worldwide every year because of incontinence.

If you lose urine at your sleep and you have never been dry before, you are suffering on a situation called enuresis and you need to see a specialist on this issue. Through medication or special methods or devices you may be able to solve the problem.

If you have been dry before and you are losing urine now, either when feeling the urge or by body strain, coughing or laughing you are suffering on urge incontinence or on stress incontinence. These situations have to be further examined.

It is possible that you are losing urine because of a defect emptying mechanism of the bladder due to a big prostate. It is also possible that your pelvis muscles do not cooperate with your bladder muscle and with your urethra sphincter. Moreover it can be that your bladder muscle is overreacting on small insignificant stimuli. Especially for female patients, it is possible that there has been an anatomic change of the pelvis structures due to the increasing age and the alteration of the hormones, thus a uterus ptosis or a bladder ptosis due to relaxation of the tissues can lead to incontinence.

The urologist needs a list with all your medication, all the operations you have been through and all the relevant medical diagnoses. For female patients it is very important to record the gynecological past medical history (also births and caesareans). A calendar can also be written down by the patients (volume of fluid intake and daytime, volume of urine passed and daytime, intensity of incontinence and daytime).

After a urinary tract infection has been treated or excluded as a cause of incontinence, a urodynamic study must take place. During this examination the residual urine volume after micturition and the size of urethra will also be evaluated. A vaginal examination and a perineal ultrasound are also important. This examination can be performed on an outpatient basis. With medication, electrostimulation, operative procedures or intermittent catheterization the symptoms can be relieved or vanish.