Incontinence

Contact us today for a confidential consultation

0800 267 346

Incontinence is more common that you might imagine.

Bladder and bowel incontinence is estimated to impact 1.1 million New Zealanders so if this issue is affecting you, you are far from alone.

At least 30% of woman experience some degree of urinary leakage in their lifetime especially during and after pregnancy and soon after menopause as oestrogen levels decline.

1 in 4 women will avoid activities such as sports, going to the gym or even walking or playing with their kids because of it.

However, because it is such a common issue, it is often considered a normal or inevitable consequence of childbirth or ageing… but it is not.

Incontinence can dominate your daily routine and impacts your quality of life. Absorbent pads are an unsatisfactory, temporary way to manage. Treating the cause of the problem so that you can go back to doing what you enjoy, whenever you like is an actual solution.

Stress Incontinence

This is urinary leakage due to weakened pelvic floor muscles and tissues. It generally occurs when pressure on your bladder increases — such as when you exercise, laugh, sneeze, or cough.

Stress incontinence can be caused by a number of factors, including:

being overweight or obese
taking certain medications, and/or
pregnancy and childbirth (which can stretch and weaken a woman’s pelvic floor muscles)

Urge Incontinence

You have a sudden, intense urge to urinate followed by an involuntary loss of urine. You may need to urinate often, including throughout the night.

Urge incontinence can be caused by a number of factors, including:

damage to the bladder’s nerves, or other parts of the nervous system
underlying medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and stroke
bladder problems, such as infections and bladder stones, and/or
taking certain medications

Mixed Urinary Incontinence

This means you have a combination of stress and urge incontinence, so you will experience involuntary leakage with urgency and also with exertion, effort, sneezing, or coughing.

Overflow Incontinence

Leakage of urine because the bladder is failing to empty completely.

Bowel Incontinence

Bowel (or faecal) incontinence is the inability to control bowel movements. Severity can range from an occasional leakage of stool while passing gas, to a complete loss of bowel control.

Most adults who experience bowel incontinence only do so during an occasional bout of diarrhoea. However, some people have recurring or chronic faecal incontinence.

There are two typical types of incontinence:

urge incontinence: the inability to resist the urge to defecate, which is often associated with poor gut health and digestion, and
passive incontinence: a lack of awareness of the need to pass stool.

For an otherwise healthy person, faecal incontinence can cause significant emotional and psychological distress.

Whatever the cause, the important thing is to seek medical help. Treatments are available that can change your life.

How we can help Incontinence

A thorough assessment of your pelvic floor to ascertain whether it is ‘under active and weak’ or ‘over active and fatigued’. Both can cause incontinence issues.
Scanning your bladder to check it is doing a good job of emptying
Teaching you how to use your pelvic floor correctly and how you can optimise its function and coordination
Empowering you with self help strategies and advice on changes you can make to improve your condition

Click through the tabs below for more information on treatment options

Pelvic Health Physio

Incontinence is not only an issue caused by the pelvic floor. To treat effectively we need to address and coordinate the whole system of bladder, bowel, pelvic floor, nervous system and sometimes even the gut and bladder microbiota (the balance and function of the microbes in your bladder and digestive systems)

Pelvic floor muscle training with a qualified pelvic health physiotherapist is a researched, first line medical recommendation for the management of incontinence. Our priority is to make sure you are using your pelvic floor correctly. Then we can empower you with how you can improve your strength and ability in functional ways at home and with appropriate exercise activities.

PelviPower

PelviPower Magnetic Field Therapy (MFT) uses repetitive magnetic impulses to trigger comfortable but powerful contractions of the pelvic floor muscles and surrounding nerves.

With contractions much stronger than you can achieve yourself, the function, coordination and strength of the pelvic floor is improved.

We use this amazing therapy tool in different ways to address different kinds of incontinence.

We can use impulses at lower frequencies to address issues like urgency and higher frequencies to promote strength changes.

We are also able to focus the treatment stimulus to the front of the female pelvic floor for urinary incontinence or under the back passage for bowel incontinence.

PelviPower Biofeedback Training (BFT) increases the perception, coordination and control of your pelvic floor because you see the efforts of your training presented to you in real time on a computer screen in front of you.

Real Time Ultrasound Biofeedback

Ultrasound scanning helps you learn how to contract your pelvic floor properly. Seeing your muscles move as you feel them contract is a very powerful training tool.

Also, we are able to scan your bladder volume to see if your bladder is completely emptying. Without this tool we would be guessing that we were giving you the right treatment and advice.

Acupuncture

Between 12-17% of women will develop a form of Overactive Bladder Syndrome (OAB). A systematic review of the research in 2016 concluded that “ existing studies serve as a promising foundation to suggest a role for acupuncture in treating urgency, frequency and poor quality of life associated with OAB”

Natural Medicines and Nutrition

A balanced health plan designed for your specific needs, combining nutritional advice with evidence-based natural medicine, can help you to alleviate the drivers of incontinence such as bowel urgency, constipation and loose stools.

It is difficult not to overstate the importance of the role your intestinal microbiota (microbes) play in the maintenance of your health and function.

Some of its functions include:

The production of short chain fatty acids which in part improve gut motility and normalise transit time
The production of vitamins
Nutrient processing and digestion
Balancing immune and inflammatory response
Influencing your metabolism

Along with specific dietary recommendations, certain highly researched key species of bacteria assist in the restoration of healthy gut function.

Give us a call on 0800 267 346

to book an initial consultation or fill in the form on our contact page

Book your confidential consultation