What Medications Can I Use For Overactive Bladder
Your doctor may suggest trying behavioral techniques before having you use a medication to treat overactive bladder. However, medications can work very well to return normal function to the bladder. Ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of using the following commonly prescribed medications:
Anticholinergic medications
These medications control muscle spasms in the bladder:
- Oxybutynin , oxybutynin XL , oxybutynin TDDS .
- Tolterodine .
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Take Charge: Seek Your Doctors Advice
Approximately 80% of those affected by urinary incontinence can be cured or improved, yet only one in 12 people with incontinence issues seek help. Talk to your doctor about your bladder control as it can dramatically improve your lifestyle.
Your doctor can investigate and establish a cause for your overactive bladder. Treatment can then be tailored to this cause and may involve medications, bladder retraining, pelvic floor exercises, absorbent products, surgery, or combinations of these options.
Plus, consider joining the Drugs.com Overactive Bladder Support Group. Here, you can connect with people with similar questions and concerns, share your experiences, and keep up with the latest new drug approvals, ongoing research, and medical news.
Key Tips For Successful Bladder Training
Dont rush and try to overdo it too soon.
Think about it as if you are training for a marathon or a walking charity event or any other challenging event in your life.
It would take many weeks of walking to eventually slight jogging to finally slow running until you could run or even walk a race and then youd need to build endurance to go the distance.
You may never run a marathon, but building bladder control may give you more freedom and joy than any other training goal youve tried for!
Practice relaxation on a daily basis regardless of you progress. It will give you inner peace and other health benefits far beyond bladder control.
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Do Kegel Exercises Help People With Ic
Some bladder retraining programs recommend practicing Kegel exercises as part of bladder retraining. Kegel exercises are very frequently used to treat incontinence but can actually make IC symptoms worse. This is because Kegel exercises are designed to tighten the pelvic floor muscles. But people with IC often have pelvic floor dysfunction , and their pelvic muscles are too tight. For these patients, Kegels can cause further muscle tension and muscle spasms. There are, however, other exercises and stretches that you can do to ease muscle tension and reduce spasms. Ask your healthcare provider for a referral to a physical therapist who treats people with IC and pelvic floor dysfuction.
Bladder Retraining After Long Catheterization
May 30, 2013 by Ken Theriot
A couple of weeks ago my urologist told me I didnt need to wear the leg bag with my catheter anymore if I didnt want to. I wrote about this in my article I Havent Really Need This Leg Bag! At first I felt a bit like I wish Id known this 3 months ago! But as it turns out, I couldnt have gone bag-less any earlier because I was being prepped for my antegrade-retrograde urethrogram , during which time my bladder and urethra had to be resting for 3 months. This apparently makes for a much more accurate picture of the stricture length and location.
But now that they have done the urethrogram and pinpointed the details of the stricture , I can go bag-less every day. However, even after a couple of weeks I still have to go every hour.
So Ive been wondering if I should be holding it for longer, trying to push through the discomfort of the urge to pee for longer and longer, in order to retrain my bladder to hold onto the pee for the normal 4 hours. My hunch appears to have been right, according to the below article. Basically, you have to inform your bladder that YOU are the boss, not IT. As it turns out, thats not entirely true. Im bending to my bladders willeventually. But I was able to get up to 90 minutes a few times yesterday. So maybe its working.
Anyway, here is the article I refer to:
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Limit Caffeine And Alcohol
Caffeine and alcohol have a diuretic effect on your body. That means they increase the amount of urine you produce. If youre having trouble controlling your bladder, consuming caffeinated beverages may be contributing to the problem.
To help manage your symptoms, consider limiting caffeine and alcohol, or avoiding them altogether. Coffee, tea, soda, chocolate, and certain medications are common sources of caffeine.
Keeping A Bladder Diary May Help Identify Triggers
Keeping a diary may sound time consuming, but it will help both you and your doctor identify any triggers for your overactive bladder and establish just how often you visit the bathroom each day.
How should you keep a diary for your overactive bladder?
- Document exactly what kind of fluids you drink and their volume.
- Write down the type and quantity of food you eat.
- Record the number of trips to the bathroom and rate your trips as successful or not.
- Indicate what you were doing when leakage or the urge to urinate occurred
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Increase Time Between Trips
Once you’re comfortable with your voiding schedule, extend the amount of time between bathroom trips by 15 minutes. For example, if you’re urinating every hour and 15 minutes, stretch that out to an hour and a half for a week.
Once you’re ready, you can shoot for an hour and 45 minutes. The goal is to get to the point where you’re urinating every three hours or so the specific timing is up to you.
One: Schedule Bathroom Visits
Calculate how often youre going to the bathroom based on your diary record. Then add about 15 minutes to that duration. For example, if youre going to pee every hour, schedule bathroom visits after one hour and 15 minutes.
This will enable you to go to the bathroom at set times, regardless of whether you actually feel the urge or not. Gradually increase the amount of time until you find a schedule that works for you.
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Behavioral Intervention: Bladder Training
Bladder training is a behavioral intervention developed originally for urge incontinence. In its earliest form, known as bladder drill, it was an intensive intervention often conducted in an inpatient setting. Patients were placed on a strict voiding schedule for 7 to 10 days to lengthen the interval between voids and to establish a normal voiding interval. Cure rates in women ranged from 82% to 86% . Bladder training is a modification that is conducted more gradually in the outpatient setting.
The premise of bladder training is that the habit of frequent urination can lead to reduced bladder capacity and detrusor overactivity, which, in turn, causes urge incontinence. The goal of the intervention is to break this cycle by encouraging patients to resist the sensation of urgency and postpone urination. Using consistent voiding schedules, the patient voids at predetermined intervals and, over time, gradually increases the voiding interval, which is believed to increase capacity and decrease overactivity, resulting in improved bladder control.
Cynthia E. Neville, in, 2020
How To Strengthen Your Bladder And Urinate Less Often
This article was medically reviewed by Allison Romero, PT, DPT. Dr. Allison Romero is a Pelvic Health Specialist, Physical Therapist, and the Owner of Reclaim Pelvic Therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. With over a decade of experience, Allison specializes in comprehensive pelvic physical therapy treatments for pelvic floor dysfunction. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Sonoma State University and a Doctor of Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California. Allison is a board certified Physical Therapist in California and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association-Section on Womens Health and the International Pelvic Pain Society.There are 19 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 100% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 972,837 times.
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What Are Normal Bladder Habits
A healthy bladder can hold one and a half to two cups of urine during the day and about four cups at night. It is normal to pass urine five or six times a day if you drink between 6-8 glasses of fluid. It is usual to empty your bladder when you get out of bed in the morning, three times during the day, and before you go to bed at night. As we age this pattern may change, as older people tend to make more urine at night.
Behavioral Interventions For Urinary Incontinence
Bladder training
Bladder training is a behavioral intervention most often recommended as an intervention for persons with urge UI. The main goals of bladder training are to improve bladder capacity and restore normal bladder function.103 Burgio described a model in which the sensation of urgency drives urinary frequency, leading to reduced bladder capacity, OAB, and UI. In this model, the introduction of bladder training allows the patient to break the cycle.103
Bladder training requires the patient to gradually increase the time interval between voids until an acceptable voiding schedule is reached. A voiding schedule of every 3 to 4 hours is optimal, but depends on the patients preintervention voiding schedule. To delay voiding, the patient must be able to suppress the sensation of urgency. Suggested urge suppression strategies include distraction to another task, taking deep breaths to relax, and contracting the PFMs several times to inhibit bladder contractions. Patients are also taught to avoid rushing to the bathroom, which may increase abdominal pressure and trigger bladder contractions. Instead, they are instructed to walk at a normal pace to the bathroom and pausing, if needed, to contract their PFMs.104
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Over The Following Weeks
Try to gradually increase the time between visits to the toilet. Each time you get the urge to go to the toilet, try to hold on for a few minutes longer.
If you wake up during the night with a strong desire to go to the toilet, it is reasonable to go and empty the bladder right away . As you improve by day, you will gain confidence to practice the programme at night.
What If This Does Not Work
You should not think about failure for a start. Be positive and determine in your mind that you are going to succeed. Be reassured that there are other measures that can be tried if bladder training does not work, but for now focus on trying to get your bladder under control. There are special leaflets for the next steps and you can ask the doctor or the nurse to provide them.
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Will There Be Setbacks
Don’t be concerned with small day to day variations in your bladder pattern these are normal for everyone. However, any person who starts a bladder training programme may experience setbacks when the symptoms seem worse again. These may occur:
- when you are tired or run down
- during a urinary tract infection
- at times of anxiety or emotional stress
- when the weather is wet, windy or cold
- during times of illness, eg. cold or flu.
If this does happen, do not be discouraged. Think positively and keep trying. It becomes easier with practice. Do keep doing the bladder training and the pelvic floor muscle exercises.
Treatment Options For Bladder Control Problems
Most people are reluctant to talk about bladder control problems. They may not want to share it even with the doctors. However, discussing this problem, especially with your doctor, is necessary to find their solutions.
Healthcare professionals can offer you different treatment options depending upon the description of your urinary incontinence. These treatment options can range from lifestyle changes to surgery.
Sometimes, you may have to go for more than one approach before you find one that suits your needs.
One of the most commonly recommended first-line treatment options for bladder control problems is bladder retraining, a type of behavioral therapy that helps you regain control over your bladder.
Bladder control training comprises some strategies that gradually teach you to hold in urine for longer and longer periods of time to prevent emergencies and leaks.
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How Long Can You Leave A Puppy Alone
The number one rule to raise a healthy, happy dog is spending a lot of time with them because they require attention, exercise, and care frequently during their one to six-month-old phase. Thus, leaving them alone for too long is not only sad for the pup but could lead to a number of mental as well as physical health problems.
Just like humans, dogs, no matter adults or puppies, also need to eliminate waste products from their bodies, and making them hold it for too long can cause several issues. So, even if you will be out for long, you must ensure that your pup is comfortable at home and knows where it can poop or pee. You can do so by training your pup to stay in a crate, although for as little time as possible, and please dont make this a regular habit because your dog needs exercise and interaction. You can also install potty pads and leave your dogs with many toys and treats to play with while youre gone.
You Can Train Yourself To Not Need To Urinate As Often
This sweater-vested mans got to go!
I see a lot of patients with complaints of frequent urination, or overactive bladder, Brucker says. But a lot of the time, its just a matter of them breaking the habit of peeing every opportunity they have, because then they end up peeing 25 times per day.
Simply holding it for a bit instead of going the second you feel the need to pee will gradually strengthen both the mental communication circuit responsible for keeping your bladder from emptying and the actual muscles that let you do so.
if all else fails, theres a secret move you can whip out in dire circumstances
If youre stuck in a situation where you do need to hold it for an especially long time, there are some things you can do. WikiHows exquisitely illustrated guide has some interesting tips: Its good to cross your legs if standing, but not if youre sitting . Dont move too much, dont drink anything, and try to think about something totally unrelated to your overwhelming urge to pee.
If this all fails, theres a secret move you can whip out in especially dire circumstances, though it requires advance preparation. Its called the knack maneuver, and both men and women can develop the ability to execute it by doing exercises similar to Kegel exercises over time. Essentially, you try to squeeze the muscles that make up your pelvic floor, then intentionally cough or pretend to sneeze .
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Theres No Evidence That Peeing After Sex Prevents Utis
Both women and men can get urinary tract infections, but women get them much more often for a basic anatomical reason: Their urethras are shorter and are located much closer to the anus, allowing bacteria to more easily jump from one to the other and travel up the bladder. Typically, this occurs with E. coli bacteria, though in about 5 to 10 percent of cases, its Staphylococcus.
Unfortunately, the activity that actually spreads the bacteria most often is sex in pre-menopausal women who are sexually active, researchers estimatesex is to blame for about 75 to 90 percent of UTIs. Using a diaphragm or a spermicide makes someone more likely to contract a UTI, but despite conventional wisdom, theres no evidence that peeing or taking a shower after sex, using condoms, or using a birth control pill makes them any more or less likely. Theres some evidence that drinking cranberry juice can help prevent them, but the effect seems to be small.
A dose of antibiotics is usually effective in controlling an infection but rarely wipes out the bacteria entirely:44 percent of women have a second episode within a year of being treated for an initial one.
How Does Bladder Retraining Work
Bladder retraining helps you to begin to hold more urine for longer periods of time. It is possible to train your bladder to do this by gradually increasing the time between each visit to the toilet.
This method sounds simple, however bladder retraining takes time and determination and will not work overnight. To have a chance of successful bladder retraining you must try and ignore the feeling that you need to go to the toilet for as long as possible.
If you can learn to ignore the feeling that you need to go straight away your bladder will begin to relax and will become less irritable. It is possible for you to be in control of your bladder and not the other way round.
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The Purpose Of Bladder Training
Bladder training, or bladder re-training to be more precise, is a process where you begin to go to the bathroom on a predetermined time interval even if you have no urge to go, and gradually increase the interval time between the visits.
The purpose of bladder training practice is twofold: first, to let your bladder become more full in between urination, and second, to help you build more control over your urination urges.