Incontinence treatable, if reported

While millions have the condition, patients are often hesitant to talk about it.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. June 28, 2004.

Washington -- Patients, primarily women, are often too embarrassed to tell their physicians that urinary incontinence is disrupting their lives.

Instead, they pass up job opportunities, withdraw from social activities and dress in ways that help them avoid the embarrassment that results from an involuntary loss of urine when they sneeze, laugh, cough or exercise.

The problem is often stress urinary incontinence, and it is the most common form of urinary incontinence -- affecting an estimated 15 million women in the United States.

Its widespread nature and the fact that there are effective treatments is behind an advocacy group push to reach out to women and their physicians and encourage them to overcome the silence that keeps the condition unreported and untreated.

The limited time physicians have with patients might make them hesitate to ask about incontinence, said Victor Nitti, MD, director of New York University School of Medicine's Dept. of Urology. "But when you realize the impact on quality of life a condition like SUI can have on a patient, you realize how important it is to ask about incontinence in general and SUI in particular."

"Even if a particular health professional doesn't believe they can treat the condition, they can refer the patient to someone who can. It's important to be a source of information," Dr. Nitti said.

Dr. Nitti, representing the American Foundation for Urologic Diseases, joined representatives from national continence organizations June 7 to launch the first Urinary Incontinence Awareness Week.