Leaky Bladder, Urge Incontinence, Small Bladder?
Bladder health is a crucial aspect of overall well-being. Many women experience issues like leaky bladders and urge incontinence. These problems can start as early as the 20s, affecting daily life. Understanding the causes of these conditions is key to finding practical solutions. In this article, we’ll explore practical tips on how to improve bladder health and address common causes of incontinence, frequent urination, cystocele (prolapse), and a weak, leaky bladder in women.
Things that can lead to bladder problems
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- Do you hover over the toilet? If you’re grossed out by sitting on a public toilet, make yourself a nest of toilet paper to sit on, and don’t hover. You may be thinking, “But I thought squatting was good for the pelvic floor?” It can be, but hovering with your hips higher than your knees is not a resting squat. When you hover over the toilet, your pelvic floor is actively participating in supporting you. The pelvic floor must relax to allow the external urethral sphincter to relax. If your pelvic floor is tense, you end up forcefully pushing pee out, which interrupts the fine-tuned coordination between the nerves, brain, pelvic floor, and bladder.
- Some women are in such a hurry to get back to what they were doing that they end up forcefully pushing their pee out, even if they are sitting on the toilet and not hovering. Chill out, stop bullying your bladder. You’re only saving like two seconds by forcefully pushing your pee out.
- Scar tissue or adhesions on your bladder can pull on the bladder and send signals to the brain that your bladder is full before it actually is, creating a sense of urgency. Learn how to work with your abdominal adhesions and C-section scar in my Free The Belly online course.
- Your uterus and your bladder hate restrictive clothing. Read more about how skinny jeans mess with your organs HERE.
- Stopping the flow of urine by doing Kegels on the toilet can disrupt the natural urination reflex. Remember, the pelvic floor needs to relax as you pee. Stop teasing your bladder with Kegels on the toilet. What you are doing to help a leaky bladder could be the cause of the leaky bladder.
- The small bladder myth. Having a small bladder is highly unlikely, but an overactive bladder can make your bladder seem small. Frequently emptying your bladder ‘just in case’ can increase bladder sensitivity and decrease its capacity to hold urine. Pair an overactive bladder with a weak pelvic floor, and it could lead to urge incontinence. The good news is, you can retrain your body, more on that in another article.
- Certain foods can irritate the bladder. Specifically, these include coffee and tea (both caffeinated and decaffeinated), tomato products, carbonated beverages, citrus juices, sweeteners, processed foods with artificial flavors, and preservatives.
- Habitually sucking in your belly can lead to pelvic organ prolapse and a weak hypertonic pelvic floor. The pelvic floor and the respiratory diaphragm should work together. When you breathe in, the pelvic floor should elastically contract, and when you exhale, the pelvic floor should naturally relax, allowing the pelvic organs to rise with it. Habitually sucking in the belly collapses the internal organ fascial support from the abdominal wall and increases intra-abdominal pressure toward the pelvic outlet and diaphragm, leading to constipation, hernias, prolapse, and incontinence.
- It’s not a weak bladder, it’s your pelvic floor! A weak pelvic floor can lead to leakage. Now, don’t start doing a bunch of Kegels. Sometimes, too much tension in the pelvic floor can lead to a weak pelvic floor. The pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation. For more information, please refer to the suggestions provided in the links at the bottom of the page.
- Don’t walk like a lady. Read my Walking Like a Lady article for more information on this. I also cover massage techniques and pelvic alignment for prolapsed bladder and frequent urination in my Womb Care online course. Remember, the uterus and bladder are physically and functionally related!
- An anteflexed uterus can press on the bladder, especially right before your period when your uterus is heavier. See the video below.
- Holding in your pee
Author: Barbara Horsley has more than 26 years of experience as a licensed massage therapist. She specializes in abdominal massage and Visceral Manipulation™ and is an NCBTMB-approved educator. In addition to being certified in abdominal massage, she also studied biomechanics and restorative exercise. She is also a Certified Women’s Herbal Educator and a graduate of the IWHI Perimenopause & Menopause Certificate Program.