Urinary Incontinence Treatment
What is Urinary Incontinence?
There are two main types of Incontinence:
- Stress Incontinence is urinary leaking when coughing, laughing, sneezing, and other activities.
- Urge Incontinence is when you have an immediate urge to urinate. In urge incontinence, the urinary bladder contracts involuntarily, causing some urine to leak through the sphincter muscles holding the bladder closed.
If you suffer from Urinary incontinence, or other pelvic floor disorders, know that you are not alone! The latest clinical research indicates that:
- 40% of adult women suffer from some form of urinary incontinence
- Almost 50% of women following childbirth suffer from some degree of pelvic prolapse
- 60-80% of women over the age of 50 will experience vaginal atrophy at some point in their lifetime
Understanding Risk Factors for Urinary Incontinence:
Although avoiding urinary incontinence may not be possible, minimizing risk factors can decrease the likelihood of developing this disturbing problem:
- Weight: There is a high correlation between excess weight and incontinence. Research suggests that excess abdominal fat weakens the muscles of the pelvic floor, resulting in stress incontinence.
- Smoking/Nicotine: Among the many ways that smoking threatens your health, smoking nicotine doubles the likelihood a woman will develop stress incontinence.
- Bladder Irritants: Caffeine and alcohol have been linked to urge incontinence. Other common irritants include carbonated drinks, the artificial sweetener Aspartame, spicy foods, and even citrus fruits.
- Straining during bowel movements: Constipation-related straining can weaken the pelvic floor muscles. Changing your diet by increasing your fiber and fluid intake can help to prevent constipation.
As you can see, Urinary Incontinence in Men and Women can occur from a wide variety of factors and lifestyle choices. However, there are varying degrees of severity in the symptoms associated with Urinary Incontinence and, therefore, varying ways in which your Quality of Life may be influenced.
As a result, we would ask that you complete a short (4-5 minute) ICIQ-Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Questionnaire to determine the degree to which Urinary Incontinence has impacted your Quality of Life.
For more information, visit Fotona’s website to read more.
What treatment options are available?
Through use of our new Incontilase procedure, you can finally take steps toward a long-term solution for urinary incontinence! IncontiLase is an innovative laser light therapy for mild and moderate stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Women of all ages can benefit from our expertise, and highly effective treatments for strengthening the pelvic floor muscles, practically eliminating this inconvenient, and embarrassing, medical condition.
This procedure features a built-in proprietary technology called Fotona SMOOTH that enables delivery of precisely controlled laser light energy to stimulate collagen neogenesis, remodeling the mucosa tissue (in the region of the vestibule and urethral orifice, as well as in the area along the anterior vaginal wall). The additional collagen produced strengthens connective tissue on the anterior vaginal wall, supporting the urinary bladder. The end result of this procedure is shrinkage and tightening of the tissue in the urethral and anterior bladder wall region, and the return of normal continence function.
The procedure is incisionless and virtually painless, with no ablation, cutting, anesthesia, or sutures. Recovery is extremely quick, without need for the use of analgesics or antibiotics. Only a mild topical numbing cream is used.
Typical benefits of this revolutionary urinary incontinence procedure include:
- Improving the pelvic floor support
- Diminishing symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction
- Improves urethral support by photothermal strengthening of the vaginal wall
- Works on connective tissue in the vaginal mucosa with emphasis on the interior vaginal wall
- No anesthesia is needed
- It is a walk-in/walk-out procedure
- Safe, quick and easy
- High success rate and patient satisfaction
IncontiLase treatment is based on clinical evidence that applying measured laser light energy to the vaginal mucosa can cause strengthening of connective tissues, and thereby support the urinary bladder. The benefits to the patient are enormous, as has been documented in satisfaction surveys. In addition to this treatment’s proven record of efficacy, patients can have peace of mind in knowing that each of these treatments only take about 30 minutes, with little to no downtime, and most often do not require any injectables, or anesthesia! The treatment works best for mild and moderate cases of stress urinary incontinence, however significant results are typically seen even in severe cases of stress urinary incontinence. If you think you might benefit from our expertise, please do not hesitate, call today!
