There are a number of treatments available for urge incontinence, including drug treatments that you can discuss with your Doctor or health professional. However, for many people the best way to improve urge incontinence can be to retrain the bladder. Over time, it is possible to gradually stretch the bladder so that it can hold more. This will give you more time to get to the toilet after you feel the ‘urge’ meaning you are less likely to leak involuntarily. Your doctor, nurse, or continence advisor can explain how to do bladder retraining.

Also using mental tricks can take your mind off the urge. For example, distracting yourself by thinking of as many words as you can beginning with the letter A, and so on working your way through the alphabet.

Doing pelvic floor exercises can also help. They will not cure the bladder contractions that cause the urge, but stronger pelvic floor muscles will support your bladder and help minimize any leakages.

If it stings when you pass urine you may have an infection (known as cystitis) and should see your GP or a medical professional. The urge incontinence often improves when the infection is treated.

Urge incontinence is the second most common type of incontinence after stress incontinence. It is also often referred to as an overactive bladder. With this type of incontinence, the bladder contracts involuntarily, leading to the release of large amounts of urine. This is caused by a problem with the messages between the bladder and the brain. The bladder may tell the brain it is full too early, causing the bladder muscle to squeeze and empty the bladder completely – often before you have a chance to reach a toilet in time.

Urge incontinence may happen at any time, even when you’re sat still. It can be triggered by a sudden change of position, and is worse in times of stress. It can happen during sex, particularly during orgasm. Another symptom of urge incontinence is a need to go to the toilet a lot during the night. However there are a range of treatments available which we will look at next.

We’ve received a few questions from customers recently about Urge Incontinence and what could be done to treat this. They weren’t sure whether it was worth seeing their doctor as they weren’t sure if there was anything they could do to improve this type of incontinence.

Although not as simple to treat as Stress Incontinence, there are a large number of treatment options available for Urge Incontinence beyond just using incontinence pads or pants. Your health professional is the best person to discuss these options with you and may be able to refer you to your local continence advisor if necessary. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your Doctor then you might find it easier to discuss this with your practise or district nurse who will be used to discussing this regularly with patients. It’s worth remembering that although not often discussed between friends, urge incontinence is a relatively common condition and therefore health professionals are extremely used to dealing with this condition and you will not be the only person that has asked them about it this week.