Understanding Your Bladder Symptoms:
What’s Normal and When to Seek Help?
It’s natural to have questions about your bladder health. To determine if your bladder symptoms are normal, we first need to consider your fluid intake.
Ideally, adults should drink enough fluids to ensure their urine is a pale straw colour. Keep in mind that certain medications and vitamin B supplements can affect this.
Normal bladder function typically includes:
- Daytime frequency: 5-7 times per day
- Nighttime frequency: 0-1 times (1-2 times as you age)
- Urge: You should feel the urge to urinate but be able to delay it if needed. This urge increases gradually as your bladder fills.
- Voiding (Passing Urine): The flow should start quickly and strongly, tapering off without drips once you finish.
Bladder Dysfunction Indicators
If your symptoms deviate from these norms, you might be experiencing bladder dysfunction.
Common symptoms include:
- Stress urinary incontinence: Leakage during activities like coughing, sneezing, or exercise.
- Urge urinary incontinence/Overactive Bladder: Sudden, strong need to urinate.
- Voiding dysfunctions
- Bladder pain syndrome
- Underactive Bladder
- Nocturia: Frequent nighttime urination.
Causes of Bladder Dysfunction
Bladder dysfunction can affect anyone at any age, though women are more commonly affected due to pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause.
Contributing factors include:
- Side effects of medications or dietary irritants
- Hormonal changes, especially related to pregnancy and menopause
- Pelvic organ prolapse
- Bowel habits and constipation
- Certain movements during exercise
- Chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, or low back pain
- Neurogenic bladder symptoms from brain, spinal cord, or nerve injuries
What to Expect During Your Initial Consultation
We understand discussing bladder issues can be embarrassing, but rest assured, our women’s health physiotherapists are here to help without judgement.
During your consultation, we will:
- Discuss your concerns, general health, history, and bladder and bowel habits.
- Conduct a full-body assessment to evaluate how you move and how this may impact bladder pressure during activities.
- If needed, perform an internal examination to assess pelvic floor function and strength, and check for prolapse.
- Use real-time ultrasound to show how your pelvic floor moves and measure any prolapse and bladder volumes.
Management and Treatment
Based on the assessment, your treatment plan may include:
- Keeping a bladder diary to track volumes, frequency, urges, and fluid intake.
- Individualised pelvic floor muscle training.
- Bladder urge deferral strategies.
- Bladder retraining exercises.
- Lifestyle advice on fluid intake and eliminating irritants.
- Guidance on good voiding techniques and bowel habits.
- Consulting with your GP regarding the potential benefits of oestrogen supplementation to improve urethral closure pressure.
- If needed, use a pessary to support the bladder and urethra.
- Incorporating soft tissue release techniques and breath work with loading techniques to safely return to exercise.
What can I do about it?
Your women’s health physiotherapist will work with you to develop a comprehensive plan tailored to your needs, ensuring you feel supported and informed throughout the process. Feel free to reach out to our Women’s Health Physiotherapist, Giselle at giselle@zone34.com.au or contact reception on 02 9056 0850 or at reception@zone34.com.au to book an appointment. We’re here to support you every step of the way.
