Hi Katherine and thanks for your question. The type of incontinence that hysterectomy increases the likelihood of developing is called stress incontinence. Stress incontinence is a leaking of urine that happens when you lift things, exercise, cough, sneeze, or laugh. It is caused by pelvic muscles that are too relaxed. It is a common problem for women.
The pelvic muscles may have been stretched or torn during child-bearing or by pelvic surgery. The good news is that there are exercises (Kegel exercises) you can do to strengthen your pelvic muscles to help prevent stress incontinence.
You can feel the muscles that need to be exercised by squeezing the muscles in your genital area. You might find that it helps to pretend you are contracting the pelvic muscles to stop a flow of urine or stop from passing gas.
Squeeze your pelvic muscles and hold the contraction for 3 to 5 seconds. Do this 10 to 20 times. Let the muscles relax completely between contractions. Do these sets of contractions 3 to 4 times a day. You won?t get as much help from the exercises if you do them less often than this.
You can do Kegel exercises anywhere: while sitting at a desk, waiting for a bus, washing dishes, driving a car, waiting in line, or watching television. No one will know you are doing them.Don?t do these exercises while you are urinating or having a bowel movement.
If you have a bladder control problem from weakened pelvic muscles and start regularly doing the Kegels, you may have less leakage of urine in just a few weeks. However, you may not notice a lot of improvement until after 3 to 6 months of daily exercises. You should keep doing Kegels every day to keep the pelvic muscles strong even if you do not feel a difference.
For more information about prevention and treatment of stress incontinence please see the following website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/bladder-control-problem/WO00122/METHOD=print Thank you for using our Blue Health Connection "Ask our Nurses" service.
