MEN - Causes of Urine Leakage in Men and How to Stop It?

BY A R ON OCTOBER 7, 2011 

Urine Leakage in Men

Because most of the patients feel embarrassed to seek help, urine incontinence largely remains undiagnosed. Patients may not disclose the symptoms they experience to healthcare practitioners, disregarding the dangers that may be developing.

There are several types of urinary incontinence, these include:

• Stress incontinence. It is characterized by urine leakage associated with sneezing, coughing or a change in position.
• Urge incontinence is defined as having a strong urge to void. The patient feels the need to pass urine but cannot control it before reaching the toilet.
• Reflex incontinence happens when there is hyperreflexia and the feeling of the need to void is diminished.
• Overflow incontinence is described as urine leakage due to an overdistended urinary bladder. Functional incontinence is associated with Alzheimer’s dementia.
• Iatrogenic incontinence is associated with ingestion of certain medications.

Causes of Urine Leakage in Men

• Stress incontinence is often experienced by men after radical prostatectomy. It is the removal of the prostate gland and some of the surrounding tissues in men with prostate cancer.
• Urge incontinence may happen to men with neurologic dysfunction, affecting the control of bladder contractions.
• Men with injuries in the spinal cord may have reflex incontinence.
• Over distention of the urinary bladder such as in overflow incontinence may happen due to spinal cord lesions, tumors, prostatic hyperplasia and strictures.
• Alzheimer’s dementia may cause patients to have functional incontinence because they tend to forget doing daily activities such as voiding.
• Iatrogenic incontinence happens in patients taking alpha-adrenergic medications. These are meant to decrease blood pressure, affecting also the normal control of the bladder’s neck.

How to Stop Urine Leakage in Men

• Keeping a log of the times a patient voids, the amount and the triggering factors may help diagnose the type of incontinence. This should be done for at least four days to one week.
• Knowing the type of incontinence can greatly affect the type of treatment applicable to the patient.
• Losing weight decreases the amount of fat in the abdominal region that causes contributes to an increased abdominal pressure.
• Smoking cessation may also be one of the management interventions for stress incontinence as nicotine irritates the bladder.
• One should also try to void before going out whether the person feels the void to urinate or not. To empty the bladder completely, the patient should lean forward while trying to void.

Source: http://www.simple-remedies.com/