Urinary incontinence is a subject former Changing Rooms TV presenter Carol Smillie openly speaks about, in fact the star has admitted to wetting herself in the past. She's now on a mission to end the taboo around the bladder control issue.

One in three women, according to former Changing Rooms TV presenter Carol Smillie, have experienced some form of incontinence in their lifetime. In her own experience, both jumping on trampolines and blowing her nose too hard has seen the 54-year-old experience unwanted urinary incontinence.

Incontinence is an extremely common but lack of conversation surrounding the subject is resulting in people being left with an incorrect perception of the issue, and women delaying the move to incontinence underwear. Carol said: "Incontinence is a common problem after giving birth, and is usually associated with older women, but the truth is, the problem can be something women of all ages have to deal with. Incontinence is a problem people need to feel more confident to speak about, and regularly doing pelvic floor exercises are also important."

Joining Carol Smillie in the fight against suffering in silence, TV personality Nadia Sawalha has also publicly shared her experience with incontinence.

The 51-year-old Loose Women panellist said: "Like a lot of other women, the very last person I wanted to talk to about incontinence was my husband. Even though I talk to him about everything else - this is the on the 'no go’ zone between us. He¹s seven years younger than me, but I never feel any age gap between us - except when it comes to this. The more that women can talk to each other about this, the more our confidence will grow and enable us to talk to those closest to us.

TV doctor Dr Sara Kayat shed light on why this area of women's health is not being given enough attention. She said: "There are many 'embarrassing' conditions that in medicine we are constantly trying to normalise to ensure patients engage with us, for example - blood in stool, bleeding after sex and erectile dysfunction. The same needs to be done in the case of incontinence. This research highlights the lack of discussion of this topic between both friends and family and with healthcare professional - it also shows the psychological and social impact it has on people. British women are willing to put up with something that could be helped with the appropriate incontinence products. I truly believe that if women support each other, there will be more conversation giving women the knowledge and access to appropriate products to help manage their symptoms."