Everything You Need To Know About Incontinence

What Is Incontinence?

Incontinence affects millions of people worldwide, and can be life altering for many sufferers. Urinary incontinence is the most common form of incontinence and is characterised by the inability to hold urine in the bladder. For some people this may take the form of leaks and dribbles, while others may find it difficult to hold their urine for extended periods of time, or feel like their bladder is never fully emptied.

People suffering from severe incontinence issues may have to wear incontinence pads to prevent any embarrassing leaks from becoming visible, and may find themselves very restricted by their condition. Travelling and going on holiday can be stressful or near impossible as you don’t know where to find the nearest toilet, and even tasks closer to home can become incredibly strenuous.

As a particularly sensitive and private issue, incontinence can also have a massive effect on your self-confidence. It can prevent sufferers from doing things they used to enjoy and hinder their social life due to stress about how to control their bladder when not at home. As a rather stigmatised condition, leaks and dribbles can be particularly embarrassing for sufferers, and can cause them to lose out on experiences they would jump at if not for their concerns about urinary incontinence.

At Elite Aesthetics, we understand that incontinence can have a huge impact on your self-confidence, the freedom you have and how you go about your day-to-day life. We are passionate about intimate health and helping to reduce the stigma many people feel when talking about intimate health issues like incontinence. We have curated a selection of medically approved, highly effective treatments to help improve the symptoms of incontinence, to give sufferers their lives back, and help make them feel like themselves again.

What Causes Incontinence?

Incontinence can be caused by a wide variety of factors, which sometimes makes managing it more difficult.

At its most basic level, incontinence is caused when the bladder, urethra, pelvic floor muscles or a combination of all three, aren’t strong enough to prevent urine from leaving the bladder when it is full, causing leakage and difficult holding your urine.

This can happen for a variety of different reasons, including psychological or physical reasons, and can be caused by many different factors, including childbirth, the ageing process, psychological factors, underlying medical conditions, or a combination of any of these factors.

Different Types Of Incontinence

Incontinence can come in various different forms, which varies how they are treated. Some of the most common forms of incontinence are stress incontinence, urge incontinence and mixed incontinence.

Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence is the most common type of incontinence, and can occur for a variety of reasons. Stress incontinence occurs when the urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body) isn’t strong enough to stay closed when the bladder fills up. This might be caused by a weakness in the muscles that keep the urethra closed, or by weakness in the pelvic floor muscles that hold the bladder in place.

This can be exacerbated when pressure is put on the bladder, such as when we laugh, sneeze, cough jump or lift heavy objects, for example

This type of incontinence is particularly common among postnatal and menopausal or post-menopausal women, due to the strain put on muscles in this area by vaginal childbirth, or by the loss of muscle tone caused during the menopause, when estrogen and collagen levels in the body drop and muscle tone and elasticity is lost.

Urge Incontinence

Urge incontinence, sometimes known as an overactive bladder, is caused by an issue with the detrusor muscles in the walls of the bladder. Usually, the detrusor muscles relax as the bladder fills, and then when the bladder is emptied, the detrusor muscles contract as the urine leaves the body.

However in individuals who suffer from urge incontinence, these muscles contract too often, which means patients frequently feel the urge to urinate, even when the bladder is empty.

Urge incontinence is usually caused by lifestyle factors or by an underlying condition such as diabetes or a neurological condition. Urge incontinence can also be brought about by UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections) and other conditions that affect the urethra and bladder.

Mixed Incontinence

Mixed incontinence occurs when the symptoms of both stress and urge incontinence are apparent. This is less common than stress or urge incontinence alone, and occurs when the muscles that hold the bladder (the pelvic floor muscles and the muscles that open and close the urethra) are weakened, and the detrusor muscles in the walls of the bladder are overactive, creating difficulty holding urine for sufferers.

Treatments For Incontinence

Treatments for incontinence have come forward in leaps and bounds in recent years. Traditionally, only surgical options such as vaginoplasty and the controversial vaginal mesh treatment were available to effectively treat incontinence, however at Elite Aesthetics we offer a variety of non-surgical solutions to treat the symptoms of incontinence.

Emsella

The Emsella treatment from BTL Aesthetics is a completely non-invasive, non-surgical treatment that uses High Intensity Focused Electromagnetic (HIFEM) frequencies to stimulate the pelvic floor muscles and help strengthen them. One treatment from BTL Emsella can tense the pelvic floor muscles to the same level as 11,000 kegel exercises, giving the muscles that control continence a great workout, as well as triggering growth factors in the muscles and increasing the number and strength of muscle fibres.

The Emsella treatment can be carried out in under half an hour per session, and is completely painless. You can also remain fully clothed throughout the procedure, a revolutionary development in intimate health treatments. We recommend six sessions of Emsella treatment for optimum results, though many women can see and feel results from the very first treatment session.

Ultra Femme 360

Ultra Femme 360 is a revolutionary treatment that uses radiofrequency waves to gently and painlessly treat the muscles and tissues in the vaginal canal, making them stronger and helping to reduce the symptoms of stress incontinence in particular by strengthening the vaginal walls and the muscles in the vaginal canal. It also helps improve sexual function by creating a tighter vaginal canal, increasing comfort, sensation and ease of orgasm.

Dr. Shirin Lakhani of Elite Aesthetics is passionate about the results Ultra Femme 360 treatment can have for her patients, and is regularly featured in the UK press, including a live demonstration of the treatment on ITV’s This Morning.

The O-Shot

The O-Shot is a treatment that uses unique PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) techniques to help improve the strength of the muscles around the pelvic floor and in the vaginal canal. The O-Shot is carried out by spinning some of the patient’s own blood in a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the rest of the blood cells, before injecting it back into the vagina and labia. This triggers the omnipotent stem cells in the body’s tissues to rejuvenate and grow new tissue in the area.

This, like the Ultra Femme and Emsella treatments, gives the tissues in the vaginal canal and the pelvic floor more strength and elasticity, helping to better control continence.

Dr. Shirin is one of the UK’s leading doctors for PRP treatments, and is the UK trainer for O-Shot procedures.

If you or a loved one are suffering from incontinence symptoms, contact Elite Aesthetics to find our more about our range of non-surgical aesthetic treatments, learn more about how we can help, or to book your consultation today.