Urinary Incontinence After Hysterectomy: What You Need To Know

Health & Medical Blog

If you recently underwent a partial or total hysterectomy procedure to eliminate painful fibroids, endometriosis, or one of many other medical conditions that can affect the uterus, then you should learn all about urinary incontinence after hysterectomy. While not all patiemts suffer incontinence after this relatively common procedure, some begin to experience difficulty holding in their urine immediately after surgery, while others experience incontinence later in life as a result of the procedure. 

Read on to learn more about urinary incontinence after hysterectomy, including common causes of this incontinence, and treatment options for this often embarrassing problem. 

Why Incontinence May Occur After Hysterectomy

In some instances, a hysterectomy, especially one performed to tackle uterine cancer, can cause weakening of the pelvic floor muscles or loss of urethra control that contribute to the development of a type of incontinence called stress incontinence. Stress incontinence often leads to slight urine leakage when laughing, coughing, and sneezing.

However, a hysterectomy can also cause urge incontinence, which can lead to sudden, spontaneous urges to urinate that can often be so uncontrollable that urine cannot be held until a person can visit a bathroom. 

Rarely, hysterectomy surgery results in a complication that involves the formation of a fistula, or tunnel, that spans from the bladder to the vagina. This fistula can lead to small amounts of urine traveling from the bladder to the vagina where it can then leak onto clothing. 

In addition, many who do not experience urinary incontinence directly after hysterectomy surgery develop this condition later in life. Recent medical studies have revealed that those who undergo hysterectomy procedures are about 60 percent more likely to develop some form of urinary incontinence after the age of 60 than those who never never obtained hysterectomy surgeries. 

Incontinence After Hysterectomy Treatment Options 

While urinary incontinence after a hysterectomy surgery can seem alarming, thankfully, there are many urinary incontinence treatments today that help eliminate this condition in many people. 

While a fistula accidentally created during hysterectomy surgery must often be corrected with an additional small surgery to eliminate the incontinence it can cause, there are many non-invasive treatment options for stress and urge incontinence. 

Stress incontinence caused by weakened pelvic floor muscles can often be corrected over time by performing exercises that help strengthen these weakened muscles, such as Kegel exercises. Pelvic floor muscles can also be strengthened with electronic stimulation devices; these devices are placed inside of the vagina and deliver mild electrical impulses that strengthen pelvic floor muscles over time. Electronic stimulation is also believed to be an effective treatment option for urge incontinence. 

Other treatments that help control many incontinence types include medications, Botox injections, lifestyle changes, and several urinary incontinence surgery types. 

If you recently obtained hysterectomy surgery or are considering opting for this surgery type in the future, then now you understand why urinary incontinence can occur after a hysterectomy and treatments available for this condition.

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21 October 2021

introducing your daughter to the gynecologist

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