Overactive Bladder
What Is An
Overactive Bladder?
And How Advanced Can Help
Our board-certified team of specialists and surgeons is here for you to diagnose the cause of your overactive bladder and work to find the best treatment plan for you.
When to See a Doctor
What Are the Symptoms of Overactive Bladder?
Some of the most common symptoms associated with overactive bladder include:
- Difficulty controlling the urge to urinate resulting in the involuntary loss of urine (urge incontinence)
- Frequent urination
- Sudden feelings of urgency
- Waking up at night multiple times with an urgent need to urinate
Whether you're able to make it to the restroom or you start having urinary accidents, overactive bladder can be disruptive to your normal routine, causing stress and potential feelings of insecurity or embarrassment.
What Are the Treatments for Overactive Bladder?
Conservative Measures
There are conservative measures which can help treat the symptoms of overactive bladder without requiring a medical procedure. These include:
- Diet and exercise - maintaining a healthy weight and remaining active can help.
- Smoking cessation
- Effectively manage chronic illnesses like diabetes
- Reduce or eliminate alcohol and caffeine
- Do Kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor.
- Intermittent catheterization
Medications
There are a range of medicinal approaches available. There are drugs that can help relieve the symptoms related to overactive bladder and subsequent urge incontinence. The most common side effects related to medicines prescribed for OAB include dry mouth, dry eyes and constipation. The most common forms of these drugs include Oxybutynin, Tolterodine, Trospium and others.
Other Medical Options
If medications and conservative measures have failed to treat your OAB symptoms, other options include nerve stimulation, Botox injections as well as surgery. Surgical options include a procedure to increase the bladder's capacity as well as bladder removal as a last resort, but these are rarer cases.
Causes of Overactive Bladder?
Some of the factors that can lead to the types of involuntary bladder contractions associated with OAB include:
- The occurrence of bladder abnormalities including growths such as tumors or the presence of bladder stones
- Incomplete emptying of the bladder can lead to urgency due to urine remaining in the bladder after urination
- Urinary tract infections can create symptoms that are usually associated with overactive bladder
- Medications such as diuretics and other drugs that cause accelerated urine production
- Taking lots of fluids, excessive alcohol or caffeine consumption
- Diabetes
- Neurological issues including stroke or multiple sclerosis
- Degenerative problems such as a decline in mobility or cognitive impairment can lead to increased urgency due to inability to move or because of neurological factors that hinder the communication between the brain and bladder
