What Causes Urinary Incontinence?
All types of incontinence can be caused by differing factors. For instance, stress incontinence can be caused by a variety of factors such as multiple childbirths in women, being overweight, genetic weaknesses, radiation therapy or other chronic conditions.
Urge incontinence or overactive bladder is caused by damage to the bladder’s nerves, nervous system or muscles.
Overflow incontinence is caused by weak bladder muscles, blockage of the urethra, or medical conditions such as tumours.
Functional incontinence is caused by conditions which slow the person’s ability to get to the toilet in time, such as arthritis or mental confusion associated with dementia.
Video transcript
close transcriptWhat are the common causes of incontinence in women?
Generally, women find as they get older your pelvic floor, which is a set of muscles that keep you continent and keep the urethra taught, becomes weaker - generally after childbirth. That just puts additional pressure, so these are the types of incontinence people sometimes complain of, if they have been doing exertion, exercise, coughing, sneezing, laughing or jumping about on a trampoline.