Even though urinary incontinence is common, it’s hard for most people to discuss it.

Urge incontinence is one of a few distinct types of incontinence. Stress incontinence makes it difficult to hold urine in. Urge-related incontinence, on the other hand, creates a frequent, intense need to pee, even when the bladder isn’t full.

Let’s talk about a few ways to work with this everyday experience.

Keep a Bladder Diary

Keeping a bladder diary is a great start. Incontinence can be confusing, and keeping a diary establishes the facts.

Record what beverages you drink, how much, and when, as well as how often you pee, how much, and how urgent it feels.

Urge incontinence treatment will differ based on your experience, so it’s good to begin with some data.

Incontinence Underwear

New textiles have made it possible to create underwear that looks and feels like other underwear but can absorb some leakage.

An inner layer wicks moisture away from the body; the middle layer absorbs it, and the outer layer is waterproof.

This technology can help manage the day-to-day experience of incontinence. It’s also comfortable and discreet.

pStyle

When you’re dealing with a so-called “overactive” bladder, also known as urge incontinence, it’s crucial to be able to get to the bathroom as quickly as possible.

The pStyle is a handheld, hard-plastic device that allows you to pee quickly, cleanly, and discreetly while standing without removing your clothes.

If you have a frequent, inconvenient urge to pee, carrying a pStyle can help ensure you can go quickly, even when you’re far from home.

In Nature

One customer told us that gardening was her favorite pastime, and she used the pStyle in her garden so she didn’t have to dash back into the house when urge incontinence struck.

Stand-to-pee devices like the pStyle can also give you the confidence to travel farther from home. Going hiking? The pStyle makes perfect sense when you’re on hiking trails. You can pee standing up, without pulling down your pants, in any spot that seems appropriate.

Staying fully hydrated on your hike is easier when you don’t have to be anxious about holding your pee.

Public Places

The pStyle can also help you navigate urban areas. The anxiety of running errands can be overwhelming when the urge of urinary incontinence can strike at any time. With a pStyle, you can use public bathrooms quickly and cleanly.

Sometimes, it’s even possible to pee in public. The two legal issues with public urination are exposure (which is unnecessary when using the pStyle) and damaging public property. Using a pStyle to pee discreetly into a bottle is a practical and often legal workaround for public urination.

See our tips for peeing discreetly and legally in public!

Concerts and Events

Long lines at women’s restrooms, particularly at concerts or sports events, can be a nightmare for someone with urinary or urge incontinence. Increasingly, larger venues are reassigning men’s bathrooms during big events, or women are storming the men’s room in groups.

Few experiences are more satisfying than using the pStyle at a men’s urinal instead of standing in a mile-long line.

The pStyle is easy to carry anywhere. Some people carry it in a pocket or purse, wrapped in a bandana, or clipped to a belt loop in our handmade canvas pCase.

Therapeutic Yoga

Urge incontinence has several causes, all of which are connected to the detrusor muscle inside the bladder. Normally, when the bladder is full, the detrusor muscle contracts to push urine down toward the urethra. Then, it is possible to control the external urethral sphincter to release the urine voluntarily.

Muscle spasms or abnormal nerve activity can activate the detrusor muscle before the bladder is full, triggering the whole system and creating an intense urge to urinate.

Therapeutic yoga has been shown to be effective in improving physiological symptoms of incontinence. While urge incontinence medication can be moderately effective, it is associated with “bothersome side effects, resulting in high rates of discontinuation,” according to one study.

Yoga, by contrast, is experienced by most people as entirely positive. In this study, total incontinence frequency decreased by 66% among participants versus 13% in the control group.

Kegel Exercises

When the pelvic floor muscles weaken, as commonly happens after pregnancy or menopause, their ability to support other organs, including the bladder, decreases. Kegel and abdominal exercises can retrain these muscles and generate more support for the lower organs.

What is urge incontinence, after all? When various factors begin affecting muscle function around the lower organs, stress on the detrusor muscle increases, leading to more frequent bladder contractions.

Kegel exercises and exercises that strengthen the core address incontinence holistically by supporting the bladder and reducing physiological stress.

Information about kegel exercises is widely available. If you’re unfamiliar with them, try holding your urination midstream—that is the muscle you’ll be targeting with kegels. Kegels are most effective when practiced regularly.

Retrain Your Bladder

Although carrying an STP device or wearing incontinence underwear can provide crucial support for managing incontinence, healing incontinence often requires patience and persistence.

Retraining the bladder can help to reduce symptoms and promote long-term healing. When the urgent need to pee comes, try to hold on briefly. Over days and weeks, slowly work to increase the time between bathroom visits.

Retraining is about slow, long-term progress. Keeping a bladder diary and regular kegel exercises can support your retraining and help you track incremental change.

Easy Does It

Urge incontinence is annoying and stressful, but there are ways to manage and heal from it. Talk about it, reach out for help, and do your research.

Do you have more questions about the pStyle? Our website has more information and the full line of pStyles.

Contact us with questions, we are happy to help.