Urodynamic testing is available for women with urinary incontinence. The three main types of urinary continence include stress incontinence, urge incontinence, and overflow incontinence. Some women have both stress and urge incontinence.
With Stress Incontinence, urine leaks due to weakened pelvic floor muscles and tissues, and often happens when pressure on the bladder increases, such as when exercising, laughing, sneezing, or coughing. With Urge Incontinence (sometimes called Overactive Bladder), a woman feels an urgent need to go to the bathroom and may not make it there in time. Those who are unable to completely empty their bladder have Overflow Incontinence.
Urodynamic testing assesses how the bladder and urethra are performing their job of storing and releasing urine. Urodynamic tests can help explain symptoms such as incontinence, frequent urination, sudden, strong urges to urinate but nothing comes out, problems starting a urine stream, painful urination, problems emptying the bladder completely, and recurrent urinary tract infections.
Urodynamic testing is recommended for women when conservative treatment methods have failed, or in advance of surgery. Urodynamic testing is relatively simple and can be done in our office.