Incontinence: The Facts

Physiology: Types of Urinary Incontinence.

There are five basic types of incontinence. In many cases, individuals experience symptoms of more than one type of incontinence. Proper diagnosis of the type of incontinence is an important factor in successful treatment.

• Stress Incontinence - Occurs when you leak urine during a physical activity like lifting, exercising, sneezing and coughing.
• Urge Incontinence - Occurs when you have an overwhelming need to urinate and are not able to hold urine long enough to reach a toilet.
• Mixed Incontinence - A combination of stress and urge incontinence, where you have symptoms of both conditions.
• Overflow Incontinence - When your bladder never completely empties, which causes urine to leak.

What type of incontinence do you have, and how severe is your situation? Take the Incontinence Quiz.