From the Guidelines
Urinary incontinence in females can be primarily classified into three main types: stress incontinence, urgency incontinence, and mixed incontinence, as defined by the most recent and highest quality study 1.
Types of Urinary Incontinence
- Stress incontinence: occurs when physical movement or activity puts pressure on the bladder, causing urine leakage during coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercise, as described in 1.
- Urgency incontinence: involves a sudden, intense urge to urinate followed by involuntary loss of urine, often associated with overactive bladder, as noted in 1.
- Mixed incontinence: combines symptoms of both stress and urgency incontinence, as defined in 1 and 1. Other types of incontinence, such as overflow and functional incontinence, may also occur but are not as commonly referenced in the provided studies.
Importance of Diagnosis
Proper diagnosis by a healthcare provider is essential to determine the specific type and appropriate treatment approach, as treatment options vary by type and may include pelvic floor exercises, bladder training, medications, devices, or surgical interventions, as suggested in 1.
Treatment Approach
The treatment approach should be individualized based on the type of incontinence, patient preferences, and medical history, with the goal of improving quality of life and reducing morbidity and mortality, as implied by the studies 1.
From the Research
Types of Urinary Incontinence in Females
- Urge incontinence: characterized by the complaint of involuntary leakage accompanied by or immediately preceded by urgency 2
- Stress incontinence: the complaint of involuntary leakage on effort or exertion, or on sneezing or coughing 2
- Mixed urinary incontinence: the presence of both stress and urge incontinence symptoms 3, 2
- Overflow incontinence: also encountered among women, although less common than stress, urge, and mixed types 4
Diagnosis and Treatment
- Accurate diagnosis is necessary to effectively treat urinary incontinence, as treatment of different types can be very different 2
- First-line management includes lifestyle and behavior modification, as well as pelvic floor strength and bladder training 5
- Drug therapy is helpful in the treatment of urgency incontinence that does not respond to conservative measures 3, 5
- Surgical interventions, such as midurethral synthetic slings, are safe and efficacious options for stress urinary incontinence 5