Urge incontinence

In short, urge incontinence happens because your bladder muscles squeeze or contract at the wrong time. The contractions in your bladder cause an urge to urinate, regardless of how much urine your bladder holds. It may feel like you lose the ability to control and delay your visits to the toilet. Urge incontinence is commonly connected to having an overactive bladder – however, an overactive bladder and urge incontinence are not the same, even if the symptoms may seem similar. An overactive bladder only frequently signals the urge to pee, whereas urge incontinence means you may actually leak urine if you don’t make it to the toilet in time.  

It can be difficult to determine the exact cause of urge incontinence, but the following factors are known to play a role: 

• An underlying condition in your bladder, i.e. inflammation or infection  
• Various foods and drinks that irritates the bladder, i.e. coffee – as little as two cups of coffee daily can cause moderate to severe incontinence in men  
• Not drinking enough causes the urine in your bladder to be highly concentrated, which can irritate the bladder and create an urge to pee 
• An enlarged prostate 
• Bladder stones  
• Something blocking urine from leaving the bladder  
• Issues with your brain or nervous system  

If you're experiencing urge incontinence, you're not the only one. Urge incontinence is by far the most common type of incontinence amongst men. Because urge incontinence causes frequent toilet visits and leakages, you might find that it decreases your life quality. For the same reason, we recommend that you talk to your doctor to discuss your symptoms and situation.  

You may also want to check out these lifestyle and diet related changes that you can implement in your daily life to manage and minimize symptoms. Products such as Contend can also help you feel more comfortable throughout the day by providing security in case you can't make it to the toilet in time.