Your Complete Guide to Treating Stress Incontinence

First-line treatment for stress incontinence may include lifestyle changes, behavioral therapy, or pelvic floor exercises. Severe cases may require special devices or surgery.

Stress incontinence is a form of urinary incontinence. It refers to the unintentional leakage of urine during activities that place pressure on your bladder.

Everyday occurrences like coughing, sneezing, or laughing can cause urinary leakage. Brisk walking, running, lifting heavy objects, and other physical movements can also cause urine leakage in people with this condition.

Stress incontinence is linked to having weak pelvic floor muscles. The condition becomes common as people age. It’s most common in people assigned female at birth, but people assigned male at birth can also have it.

Certain lifestyle changes may help with stress incontinence. If those fail, there are medical treatments available.

Language matters

You’ll notice that the language used to share stats and other data points is pretty binary, fluctuating between the use of “male” and “female” or “men” and “women.”

Although we typically avoid language like this, specificity is key when reporting on research participants and clinical findings.

Unfortunately, the studies and surveys referenced in this article didn’t report data on, or include, participants who were transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, agender, or genderless.