"When You Pee And Can't Control It"

Blog post by Dr. Susie Gronski, DPT, PRPC.

Ever laugh so hard that you had tears running down your thighs? Seriously. This happened to my best friend, Sarah, the other day when her shaggy goldendoodle did his own version of downward dog but with a fart! She lost it. Lost her balance from standing tree pose and hit the ground rolling around laughing until she noticed that she freaking pissed herself.

WTF? Ok, so it wasn’t a lot, maybe a few drops but still! She’s only 29 yrs old. No kids, no surgery, no nada! So who left the faucet running down there?

Leaking sucks and it isn’t normal. No matter how young or old you are. Jumping on the trampoline to play with your kids shouldn’t make you go running for a new pair of underwear. And since when is crossing your legs the standard protocol for ah-choo?

There are 3 common types of leakage

1. Stress incontinence – leaking with effortful activities like bending forward while grabbing your makeup bag from underneath the sink or uh oh it’s allergy season and you know what that means, lots of sneeze attacks.
2. Urinary urge incontinence – trickling when you suddenly feel you gotta go
3. Mixed incontinence – sorry love, it’s not you’re next favorite drink. It’s “oh crap! I gotta pee so bad” as you make a mad dash trying to make it to the bathroom before the floodgates open. Followed by “damn, I wish I had another pair of underwear.” That my friend is a double whammy. The urge + sprint equals a soaked disaster.

So what are you supposed to do? Keep a spare wardrobe in your purse for those “just in case” moments? Yeah right. What you can do is check out what’s going on with your pelvic floor. “My pelvic what?” You’re pelvic floor. They’re tiny muscles that connect from your pubic bone to your tailbone acting like a hammock, holding your pelvic organs and making sure you don’t go around peeing or pooping yourself. And here’s the bonus, they help with orgasms! Sex is their thing!

But just like any other muscle in your body, you’ve got to figure out if you need to beef up or stretch out. Cause let’s face it, kegels aren’t for everyone. Let’s take your bicep, that muscle that bulges out when Popeye “eats me spinach”. It would be hard to do your handstand without being able to fully straighten your arm, so what would you do? Would you strengthen it or would you want to stretch it out first? The same goes for your pelvic floor muscles. You might need to build up or you might need to relax down.

Getting a true idea of what you need will require some help and I know just the perfect resource! Me! Ok, well actually someone like me close to home. A pelvic health specialist, someone passionate in taking care those embarrassing moments in your life that you just shouldn’t put up with.