www.incontinentsupport.org

Are Kegel's the best way to deal with stress incontinence? Yesterday my wife was blowing her nose on the way to church and she suddenly needed to urinate, badly. She had gone just 15-20 min before. This often happens when sneezing and coughing as well. She didn't have any kind of pad in her underwear so she was quite worried about making it to church on time.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's problem.

Kegel exercises definitely can help improve urinary control. However, Kegels are only one tool among many things you can do to deal with incontinence. Kegel exercises by themselves cannot be 100% effective as they rely on the ability to detect a leak in time to perform the Kegel. As you cannot maintain a Kegel for an extended period of time, absorbent pads, pull-ups, or diapers also may be necessary.

Please note that Kegels can be used not only for bladder incontinence but also for bowel incontinence.

A LOT of Kegel exercises and time will be necessary to see an improvement. It is helpful if a trained person can coach your wife in the most effective program for Kegel exercises.

Most importantly, if the problem persists your wife should see her urologist. Many people delay discussing incontinence with their physicians as they are embarrassed to bring up the subject. Believe me, I understand as I did the same thing. Just having to deal with her incontinence can be very stressful for your wife and will require a lot of understanding and support.

I do Kegel exercises 3 to 4 times a week and they have helped me significantly with control for both bladder and bowel incontinence.

This forum is a great source of information - just ask and several extremely well qualified people will answer your questions.

Your might encourage your wife to log on here directly to read the messages and search in the archive.

Best wishes.

--John