Natural Health and Medical Information

The direct relationship established between menopause and urinary incontinence is just “a socially widespread myth,” the head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hospital de La Plana de Villarreal (Spain) and Scientific Committee member Spain Indas Institute, Dr. Manuel Fillol , who said “no scientific study has shown that establishing a direct relationship between the coincidence of the onset of menopause and loss of urine.”

According to this expert said, while it is true that hormonal changes that occur during menopause can lead to a deterioration of the tissues of the pelvic floor, “urinary losses are not caused solely by this factor, but by a multifactorial process.

In particular, he noted that “the deterioration of connective tissue, and the weakening of the pelvic floor caused by the passage of time motivating that incontinence is related to aging and menopause is a factor favoring the same,” but there is direct relationship between the occurrence of incontinence and menopause. “In this regard, he added that overloading of the pelvic floor caused by pregnancy and childbirth, obesity, or constipation are other factors driving the emergence of this disease .

Therefore, experts recommend consulting your GP or specialist, who prescribe the most appropriate solution depending on the patient profile, type of incontinence you have, either of urgency (which occurs most frequently at 60, when menopause already introduced), or effort (which usually occurs in the 40s, often before the onset of menopause), and the amount and frequency of losses.

In many cases it will be very effective to perform Kegel exercises, which help strengthen the pelvic floor muscle tone. At other times the solution may undergo further drug therapy or hormonal, since in cases of urge incontinence in menopausal women, has shown the beneficial effect of topical local estrogen therapy.