Incontinence?

LegacyUser

I'm mortified posting this (hence unreg.), but I'd like to hear from anyone else willing to admit to experiencing (urinary) incontinence. I've never admitted this to anyone before, so excuse the length and detail of the post; I just want to get it all written down once and out of my head. Skip to the end by all means!

For as long as I can remember, at least back to my early teens, I sometimes leaked a little when I needed the loo or was playing sport. For some reason, it was also bad when I had to stand on the spot, e.g. queueing, family photos. Once I discovered sanitary towels for periods, I started to wear one every day to cope with the wetness. To be honest, at that age I didn't even stop to think about whether it was normal or not; it didn't bother me.

I suppose through school and college I did have to use gradually wear heavier towels, but because it was only an occasional thing I still thought I was fine. I worked as a care assistant in various nursing homes when I finished college and learned about dealing with incontinent patients. But I still wasn't willing to admit I had this problem too.

Over the next few years, things got a bit worse. I'd have times, particularly in the winter, when I'd get through several night-time towels a day. When I met my husband-to-be about five years ago, I didn't want to turn him off with my leaks. I saw the doctor and put everything I had previously learned about managing patients into practice and things improved enough for him not to notice, though it was still an issue.

In the last year however, things have gotten worse. After a few accidents and several near misses at work and in public places, I had to start wearing incontinence pads when I'm out and about. More recently, these have become larger and I need a small one all the time at home too. Mortifyingly, today I was at the dentist and soaked through a big pad, my leggings and dress by the time he was finished. God knows how, or if, I got away with it, but I "dropped" the glass of rinse stuff on me and blamed the wet patch on that. This isn't the first time something like that has happened.

So, on to the reasons I'm posting all of this. At the moment, my options for treatment are very limited. I've engaged in as much "conservative management" (fluid management, avoiding irritants, all the schedules, etc) as is realistically possible. I'm not suitable for either surgery or medication as I'm planning a pregnancy in the near future. My doctor is very understanding, but at the present can't offer me any other options.

If anyone else out there has been through this, I'd like to know how you dealt with getting to the point where you needed to start thinking about wearing larger size products? I'm only 30, and otherwise very healthy and reasonably fit, so I can't get my head around needing something normally associated with babies and very old, ill people. I also need to think about trying to tell my husband, and I have no idea how to tackle that. I'm actually tempted to try to hide it for another couple of months and then (hopefully!) blame pregnancy, rather than admit I've been hiding this from him for years. Any advice?

Thanks for reading and apologies for TMI!

LegacyUser

hi, new treatments come up all the time. If you have a consultant (which you should have given your description), ask him about botox treatment. I don't know how this interacts with pregnancy but it's worth discussing

corium.sam

It is surprising that how you have hidden your situation from your hubby from past 4 - 5 years. But it is nothing to be felt complimented. The incontinence is also related with emotional disorders and hiding such situation make condition more worse.
It is nothing to be ashamed of, numerous people are suffering from such situation. The proper diet and exercises like Kegel exercise play an important role in improving such conditions and in many cases avoid surgical operations.

MS.ing

even though I know this is a 2 yeard old thread and the OP is long gone
just for anyone reading it and going through similar, you are not alone I dont have those issues myself, but do know there are lots and lots of young/middle aged adults out there who have similar symptoms for all sorts of medical reasons.

Is it different? yes
but is there lots and lots of people who have these problems? yes