Overactive bladder is a condition in which you experience involuntary contractions of the muscles in the bladder wall. It is a syndrome where the convulsions make you feel a urgent need to urinate, which is overwhelming and difficult to suppress, even when the bladder may contain only a small amount of urine. This condition is also known as urinary urgency.
In a few cases, an overactive bladder leads to urinary leakage where you are unable to quash the impulse to pee, medically referred as to urgency urinary incontinence. A common type of urinary incontinence found is stress incontinence. Sometimes the pelvic floor muscles, which are essential in supporting the bladder surrounding the urethra, are weak and lead to urinary leakage when there’s stress/pressure on the abdomen or pelvic region.
Symptoms of an overactive bladder
With an overactive bladder, you:
Causes of an overactive bladder
Involuntary contractions in the muscles of the urinary bladder may occur due to a dysfunction of the nervous system where the brain may send impulses to the urethra muscles, even though the volume of fluid in your bladder is low.
Common reasons for this neural system abnormality are:
Other causes of overactive bladder syndrome include:
Treatments for overactive bladder
An overactive bladder may have adverse effects on your life, mostly relating to your social commitments and mental health. You might be reluctant to participate in social events such as parties, dinners, and traveling. Fortunately, there are different treatments for overactive bladder syndrome. Treatment strategies vary from behavioral changes to the use of medicines and nerve stimulation devices.
Dietary and lifestyle changes:
Behavioral changes (pelvic muscle rehabilitation):
Behavioral therapies:
Medications for treating overactive bladder
Depending on your case, different types of drugs can be recommended by your healthcare provider. These medicines start to show results within one or two weeks, and effective results are usually achieved by six weeks.
When the treatments mentioned above don’t work well to improve your condition, nerve stimulation might be recommended. A neurotransmitter device that transmits gentle electrical impulses to the bladder muscles is implanted under your skin. This sacral nerve stimulation technique helps in achieving bladder control.
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