47% Of Women Who Exercise Regularly Experience Stress Incontinence¹

What Is Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI)?

Stress urinary incontinence is the unintentional leaking of urine upon exertion. That can be sneezing, coughing, jumping, running or other physical activities. If you are leaking a few drops of urine when coughing or sneezing this is a sign of stress incontinence. Stress incontinence can also happen when participating in high impact sports or lifting heavy weights. For example; running, dancing, horse riding, trampolining, gymnastics, cross-fit and weight lifting are all activities that can highlight stress incontinence symptoms. If you are leaking with less forceful activities, like standing up, walking or bending over, this indicates your incontinence is more severe.

Causes of Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI)

Stress urinary incontinence is generally the result of weakness or injury to the pelvic floor muscles. It can be caused by pregnancy or childbirth. Other factors such as age, BMI, smoking, high impact sports and previous pelvic surgeries can contribute to stress incontinence. Stress incontinence is common following menopause, which is believe to be due to hormonal changes.

Stress Urinary Incontinence Explained

We’ve created the image to show what happens when you have an episode of stress incontinence.

A sudden increase in abdominal pressure from exertion (cough, sneeze, laugh, jumping, lifting something heavy etc.) causes an increase in intraabdominal pressure.

The increased intra-abdominal pressure causes an increase in bladder pressure.

If the external urethral sphincter cannot match the increase in pressure with an increased pressure of contraction, leakage occurs.

Once the increase in intraabdominal pressure has passed, bladder pressure returns to normal. The external urethral sphincter can hold in urine with normal bladder pressure.

If you are experiencing stress incontinence, even if it’s just a small amount, this is an indication that you may have some weakness in your external urethral sphincter which is a muscle in your pelvic floor. Strengthening your pelvic floor can help to ensure that you regain control over this muscle and prevent future leakages. Even if your stress incontinence is severe, you can still make big improvements. Studies show that women who have weaker pelvic floor muscles to begin with have the greatest percentage improvement in symptoms from pelvic floor muscle training. You can read more about pelvic floor muscle training when reviewing the conservative treatments for urinary incontinence.