What Causes a Weak Bladder?

What Causes a Weak Bladder?

Do you ever ask yourself ‘why do I have a weak bladder?’ or wonder why you experience more bladder weakness symptoms during the seasonal allergy periods if you are a hay fever sufferer.

During hay fever season (Spring) you might notice that your urinary incontinence symptoms become less manageable due to the onset of sneezing. Hay fever is unpleasant enough without the added embarrassment that can come with bladder weakness.

Here at INNOVO, we believe that bladder weakness is not something that anyone should have to live with and are passionate about giving people back their confidence and control of their lives by alleviating the symptoms of bladder weakness.

What is bladder weakness?

Bladder weakness is a broad term that can be used to describe various types of urinary incontinence such as:

Learn more about the 4 main types of incontinence in our guide.

What are the causes of bladder weakness?

A weak bladder can be caused by many different factors affecting the pelvic floor ranging from life events to health problems. It may be that you have noticed a sudden weakening of the pelvic floor, or perhaps a more gradual worsening of weak bladder symptoms over time.

A weak bladder may make it hard to keep urine in when there is extra pressure placed on your pelvic floor such as when laughing or sneezing. This is known as stress incontinence. Alternatively, you may have a frequent and urgent need to go to the toilet as a result of the detrusor muscles in your pelvic floor contracting too often. This is known as urge incontinence.

There are many causes of a weak bladder. Some of the most common include:

  • Pregnancy and childbirth
  • Trauma or injury
  • Cystocele and pelvic organ prolapse
  • Menopause
  • Neurological disorders

Being overweight, smoking, or drinking large amounts of alcohol or caffeine can also put you at risk of bladder weakness symptoms.

Does Hay Fever Cause Bladder Weakness?

In short, the answer is no, but hay fever may elevate your symptoms. If you leak when you sneeze and this happens frequently, you may have some form of stress urinary incontinence. This type of incontinence occurs when you experience a loss of bladder control when you cough, laugh, sneeze, lift something heavy, or anything other activity that places stress on the bladder. It’s caused by a weakening of the pelvic floor muscles which are responsible for bladder control (among many other things). Stress incontinence is very common, in fact, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men suffer daily.

The great news is that despite how common incontinence, bladder weakness, little accidents, whatever you might call it is, it is actually fixable. You don’t have to put up with leaks, you can do something about it.

Weak bladder treatments

There are several ways you can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles to alleviate the symptoms of a weak bladder. If your incontinence is caused by an underlying condition, you may receive treatment for this alongside any incontinence treatment prescribed by your doctor.

Lifestyle changes

Regardless of the type of incontinence you may be suffering, A GP may suggest you make some small changes to your lifestyle to help manage symptoms. These may include:

  • Reducing your caffeine intake
  • Altering the amount of fluid your drink each day - drinking too much or too little can aggravate incontinence symptoms
  • Losing weight - being overweight can lead to excess pressure on your bladder and cause incontinence

Pelvic floor training

Weak or damaged pelvic floor muscles are unable to sufficiently support the pelvic organs including the bladder, which can lead to incontinence. A GP may prescribe pelvic floor exercises, also known as Kegels, to help you train your pelvic floor and strengthen the muscles to better support your bladder. Kegels involve contracting and squeezing your pelvic floor muscles on a regular basis to build their strength. Read more about pelvic floor exercises and how to perform them properly.

Invasive solutions

Invasive solutions such as biofeedback, vaginal cones, and electrical stimulation devices work by helping you learn to relax your pelvic floor muscles, but need to be inserted into the vagina which can be intrusive and uncomfortable. These devices must also be adequately sterilised before and after use as there is a risk of infection.

Surgery

In cases where non-surgical procedures have been unsuccessful or unsuitable, surgery can be undertaken to treat some types of urinary incontinence. Sling surgery is the most common surgery used to treat stress incontinence, although the recovery period can be long and some recipients report that they find emptying their bladder completely difficult following the procedure.

Treat bladder weakness painlessly and quickly with INNOVO

INNOVO is a clinically proven, truly non-invasive and long-lasting solution to bladder weakness and urinary incontinence. Easy to use and comfortable to wear, INNOVO helps you safely and effortlessly strengthen and re-educate the entire network of pelvic floor muscles through gentle muscle stimulation.

Using INNOVO for just 30 minutes a day/five days a week over 12 weeks has been proven to treat bladder weakness – delivering results in as little as four weeks2.

INNOVO treats stress, urge, and mixed incontinence in both women and men of all ages, and is the only non-invasive pelvic floor exerciser that targets the root cause of bladder weakness. Use INNOVO's Stress Incontinence programme which will focus on delivering muscle strengthening stimulations to the entire network of pelvic floor muscles.

A clinical study found that:

  • 80% of users saw a significant reduction in leaks after just 4 weeks1
  • 87% of users were defined as either dry or almost dry after 12 weeks2
  • 90% of users would recommend the therapy to others3
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