Sunnybank Centre for Women :: Urinary Incontinence and Urodynamics Clinic

Posted on 29 April 2015 | By Sunnybank Centre for Women | Gynaecology

Urinary incontinence is the involuntary leakage of urine. This remains an embarrassing and difficult topic for women to discuss. At Sunnybank Centre for Women, we will discuss this issue with an open mind and help you out through the investigation and management of urinary incontinence. The prevalence of incontinence in women is high. In older women, the prevalence of urinary incontinence is 17 to 55 percent. For younger and middle-aged women, the prevalence is still high, but slightly lower at 12 to 42 percent.
At Sunnybank Centre for Women, we provide a Urodynamics Clinic to investigate for the cause of urinary incontinence. Urodynamics is the study of the behavior of the bladder and the outlet of the bladder (urethra), as the bladder fills and empties.
On the day of the Urodynamics Study:

Please arrive with a comfortably full bladder at the time of your appointment
Do Not Pass Urine; you need to hold on.
You need to bring in a list of all your current medications
The Urodynamic procedure takes around 30 minutes
Small catheters are inserted in the bladder to fill the bladder and record bladder activity
One small catheter is placed inside the vagina
The urodynamic study is commenced by filling your bladder with fluid
Once the bladder is filled one of the catheters from your bladder is removed
You will be asked to bear down and/or cough to check for leakage
The bladder is then emptied naturally and the catheters removed
Upon completion of the study the doctor will perform a scan to assess the bladder and the bladder neck mobility.

The procedure is not painful but may be a little embarrassing.

The most common types of incontinence are urge incontinence and stress incontinence.

Urgency is the sudden and compelling desire to pass urine which is very difficult to control once the urge to urinate arises.
Stress incontinence refers to the involuntary leakage of urine that occurs with effort, exertion, sneezing, coughing, laughing, or anytime an increase in intraabdominal pressure exceeds urethral sphincter closure mechanisms.
Mixed incontinence, refers to a combination of these two.

Generally speaking urge incontinence is managed with medications, while stress incontinence with surgery. The surgery Dr Gonzalez and Dr Jabbour offer is minimally invasive surgery in the form of a suburethral sling that holds the bladder neck, much like a hammock. This helps to close your urethra (opening to your bladder), thus preventing urine leakage. Improvement rates between 60-80% are usually reported.

Please see your local doctor if you have incontinence. It is important that you have your urine checked for infection and cytology (to detect cancers), especially if you have symptoms of urge incontinence or overactive bladder symptoms in the context of blood staining in the urine. Once these are excluded, we will see you and guide you through the process of investigation and treatment of incontinence.