Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about urinary incontinence.

You can find written notes on this topic at zero definals.com slash incontinence

or in the gynecology section of the Zero to finals, obstetrics and guiney book.

So let's get straight into it.

Urinary incontinence refers to the loss of control of urination.

And there are two types of urinary incontinence, urge incontinence and stress incontinence.

Establishing the type of incontinence is essential,

as this will determine the management. Let's start by talking about urge incontinence.

Urgent continence is caused by overactivity of the detruser muscle of the bladder.

Urgent continence is also known as overactive bladder. The typical description is of

suddenly feeling the urge to pass urine, having to rush to the bathroom and not arriving in time

before the urination occurs. Women with urging continents are very conscious about always having

access to a toilet and may avoid activities or places where they may not have easy access.

This can have a significant impact on their quality of life and stop them doing work and leisure activities.

Next let's talk about stress incontinence.

The pelvic floor consists of a sling of muscles that support the contents of the pelvis.

There are three canals through the center of the female pelvic floor.

And this is the urethral, the vaginal and the rectal canals.

When the muscles of the pelvic floor are weak, the can

become lax and the organs are poorly supported within the pelvis. Stress incontinence is due to

weakness of the pelvic floor and the sphincter muscles. This allows urine to leak at times of

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