Urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine. Incontinence,  can happen for different reasons and at different times of your life. The problem is often embarrassing and difficult to deal with for those suffering from it.

There are three main types of male incontinence:

• Stress incontinence occurs when you suddenly stress your bladder by sneezing, coughing, laughing, lifting heavy objects or performing other tasks that put pressure on your bladder.
• Urge incontinence is the feeling or need to suddenly urinate. This urge can happen at anytime. Sometimes this urge is so strong you cannot control your bladder until you reach a bathroom. This can even happen if you only have a small amount of urine in your bladder, but other times when your bladder is full you might leak urine when you are not intending to do so.
• Overflow incontinence happens when the bladder does not empty properly and leakage can occur. When the bladder fails to empty it is often due to a blockage or weak bladder muscles contractions.

In men, there are several medical conditions that can cause varying forms of incontinence. For example, prostatitis, which is an inflamed prostate, can lead to a blockage in the urinary canal. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (also called BPH) can also lead to male incontinence. Both of these conditions have varying treatment options and there will be other symptoms other than incontinence. For some men who have had prostate surgery, one of the side effects stemming from this surgery (in the case of a prostatectomy) is incontinence. Some men will experience mild incontinence after surgery, some will have it more severe, some, will not have any challenges at all.

Treatment

There are many treatments available to help cure male incontinence. Each specific treatment will depend on the type of incontinence a patient has, how often it is occurring, and how aggressive a patient wants to be regarding correcting the issue. Surgery is an option, but not always needed. There are medications, exercises and other types of effective treatment plans that have proven to work successfully for thousands of men.

If you are experiencing symptoms of male incontinence, talk to your urologist to discuss your symptoms and possible treatment options.

For additional resources relating to urinary incontinence in men, or to schedule an appointment at our Plano, Richardson and Frisco locations, call 972.612.8037. To schedule an appointment at our McKinney location, call 972.548.8195.