Many medications are available to treat incontinence that will be administered by your health care professional. Medications are not the first step in treating incontinence and would only be recommended if other behavioral therapies hadn’t worked.
List of medications and type of treatment:
- Enabalex – is used to decrease the urgency and the frequency of urination. Enablex works by relaxing the bladder muscles and helps to decrease the occurrence of muscle spasms. This assists and delays the initial desire and urge to urinate.
- Ditropan – is used to decrease the urgency and the frequency of urination. Ditropan works by relaxing the bladder muscles and helps to decrease muscle spasm. This delays the initial desire and the urge to urinate.
- Oxybutynin Sandoz – is used to decrease the urgency and the frequency of urination. Oxybutynin Sandoz works by relaxing the bladder muscles and helps to decrease muscle spasm. This delays the initial desire and the urge to urinate.
- Oxybutynin Winthrop – used to decrease the urgency and the frequency of urination. Oxybutynin Winthrop works by relaxing the bladder muscles and helps to decrease muscle spasm. This delays the initial desire and the urge to urinate.
- Oxytrol is a transdermal patch that is a treatment for an overactive bladder. It delivers the active ingredient oxybutynin, through your skin and into your bloodstream.
- Pro-Banthine is used to treat a number of different conditions. It reduces ulcers in the stomach (gastric ulcers) and in the first part of the intestine (duodenal ulcers) with the assistance of other medicines and urinary problems caused by nerves or muscles that control the bladder.
- Vesicare is used to treat the symptoms of overactive bladder. These symptoms include needing to rush to the toilet to urinate without warning, needing to urinate frequently, or wetting yourself because you did not make it to the bathroom in time.
- Detrusitol is used to treat symptoms of an overactive bladder for example urinary frequency, urgency or incontinence.
- Topical Estrogen may help tone and rejuvenate tissues in the urethra and vaginal areas that may reduce some of the symptoms of incontinence.
- Duloxetine is an antidepressant sometimes used to treat stress incontinence
Surgery Options:
With over 100 surgical procedures that can be performed to treat incontinence it’s important getting the right advice on which option to choose. The most common surgery performed is for stress incontinence. Most surgeries concentrate on restoring the urethra and bladder neck to their optimum positions in the urinary system. Many factors should be considered before deciding on having surgery including the severity, frequency and the type of incontinence.
Do your research if this is the option for you. Ensure you find a surgeon that has a long history of successful incontinence surgeries.
With many treatments available to you it’s best to explore the best options for you. Depending on the type of treatment you decide on you must remember that there may be side effects and it’s always best to talk to your doctor or health care professional before making the final decision on which option will work the best for you personally.
Incontinence Facts:
Just remember you are not alone and it’s not something to be embarrassed by. Incontinence: includes having bowel and bladder problems and effects 4.8 Million Australians. The good news is many cases can be cured and there are a wide variety of treatments and options available to you, to help manage the symptoms.
The term Incontinence describes involuntary loss of or accidental urine from the bladder (urinary incontinence) or wind from the bowel, faeces or bowel motion (faecal or bowel incontinence). The severity of this widespread condition can range from a small leak to complete loss of bladder or bowel control.
Bladder Weakness can effect up to 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men at some stage of their life. Pelvic floor strengthening exercises can improve and often cure the symptoms.