Your bladder is formed by a muscle called the detrusor that contracts to push urine out or relaxes to store urine. Sometimes your detrusor muscles will spasm causing the sudden urge to urinate, which may lead to leakage. This is called urgency urinary incontinence and is common in older women.
There are three ways to treat urgency urinary incontinence.
The first is lifestyle modification. Decreasing bladder irritants (ie alcoholic, caffeinated, carbonated), weight loss, normalizing fluid intake, and maintaining a voiding diary are some of the lifestyle modifications to make when treating urgency urinary incontinence.
The second is to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. To strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, imagine you are urinating and you want to stop the flow midstream. Perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions.
Finally, bladder retraining is a way to treat urgency urinary incontinence. If you ever feel like you have to urinate, never rush to the toilet because this will increase the activity of your detrusor muscles causing a greater chance of leaking.
Instead, whenever you feel the urge to urinate, avoid racing to the toilet at the start. Try to relax by taking some deep breaths and focus on relaxing all your other muscles. Set a time for yourself to go urinate; for example, if you feel the sudden urge to urinate, tell yourself you will wait for 10 minutes before calmly walking to the toilet.
The most important thing to note when you are experiencing a sudden urge to urinate is to calmly walk to the toilet as rushing is counter-productive.
In summary, urgency incontinence is the sudden urge to urinate, which may cause leakage. The three ways to treat urgency urinary incontinence are lifestyle modification, strengthening pelvic floor and bladder retraining.