Women more prone to urinary incontinence than men: Docs

KOLKATA: City doctors have stressed the importance of regular exercise to check urinary incontinence which is prevalent in both men and women above a certain age.

However, this condition is an under-diagnosed and under-reported problem, which increases with age. Over 50 percent of the elderly population suffers from this condition.

A person can contract this disease more than once. Females are more prone to contracting this disease than males.

Another common urinary problem prevalent in women is stress urinary incontinence. Data suggests that one in every three women suffers from the disease in India.

About 50 percent of women also suffer from urge incontinence, where a person involuntarily urinates during any physical activity or exertion like coughing, sneezing, running or heavy lifting. These activities pressurise the bladder.

According to city doctors, there is very little awareness about these ailments despite the problem being prevalent in India.

Keeping this in mind, an interactive session on "stress urinary incontinence" was organised at the Conclave. During the session, doctors discussed the disease, created awareness and elaborated on treatment for the disease.

Dr Rajeev Agarwal, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a Gynaecologist Infertility Specialist said: "Stress urinary incontinence is a common problem in women, which they are shy to talk about. Many women are not even aware that it is a

disease. Most of the common factors that increase the risk of developing stress urinary incontinence are age, pregnancy, type of childbirth delivery, body weight and nerve injuries to the lower back, menopause, chronic cough, smoking or any condition leading to lack of estrogen hormone."