What it is
Urinary or fecal incontinence is when you loose either urine or feces without meaning to. Yes, that little leak with that sneeze is incontinence. Leaking is never normal, at any age, and there are non-surgical and non-pharmacologic ways to treat and cure this condition.
There are three classifications for this condition: stress, urgency, and mixed. Stress incontinence is leaking during a time of increased intra-abdominal pressure (e.g. laughing, coughing, sneezing, exercising, etc). Urgency incontinence is when you only leak on the way to the bathroom because the urge is so strong that you cannot make it. Mixed incontinence is when you have both stress and urge incontinence.
How it is treated with physical therapy
Strengthening the pelvic floor! Therapist will perform an internal exam, with patient consent, to coach the patient through how to correctly perform a pelvic floor contraction (or Kegel). You will then be given a series of exercises to add on to the basic pelvic floor contraction to help coordinate these muscles with the surrounding muscle groups.
Your Homework
You will be given a list of exercises at every visit that you will need to perform at home on a daily basis. If you do them as prescribed, you will see improvement and are less likely to require surgical or pharmacologic intervention.
How many sessions
I am able to give you all the exercises over as little as two 1 hour visits or four 30 minute visits, spread out at whatever frequency you desire. Patients typically only require more than two visits if they have trouble with the exercises.
Pelvic Health Physical Therapy 