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WLS and incontinence



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Being a women, having had children, and being overweight are some of the reasons some of us have had some degree of incontinence at one time or another.

Maybe a sneeze, a hard laugh or cough could cause a little dribble? My question is: has anyone had this problem resolve itself with WLS?

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Yes. By the time I had lost the first thirty pounds, I no longer had to pee every fifteen minutes and was sleeping almost all night without having to go to the bathroom. At nearly one year, I can go five or six hours without peeing.

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But, can you have a good hard laugh and not pee your pants? Sneezing is also an issue for me. I really want this resolved.

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Stress incontinence is a result of heaviness in the abdomen and placed on the bladder. If that is the root cause of the sneezy leaks, it will get better. It could also be caused from a variety of things. I highly recommend ben wa balls.

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If it doesn't resolve itself with weight loss, I suggest that you see a urologist.

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I just recently went to my urologist and had the urodynamics testing (fun fun) and the result of that was that surprise, surprise I have stress incontinence (we both already knew that, but they do the testing anyway) and I also have some urge incontinence. Stress is the sneeze/cough/laff, and the urge incontinence is feeling the need to pee all the time or all of a sudden.

She discussed the various treatment options with me: one was the injections in the urethra up towards the bladder to inject a bulking agent. The second was a sling device. Each one, or so I'm told, can benefit each type of incontinence. However, when I mentioned that I was intending to have weight loss surgery, her thought was why not wait until after surgery and see how you do? It's very possible the loss of weight will help, but if not, she recommended only the injections if I was still in the process of losing weight and yet still wanted to treat the incontinence. The reason being is that the sling has to be fitted and weight loss will affect the fit. I'm just going to wait and see what happens, although lord knows I want to get this pesky life issue taken care of (have had problems for several years, soo annoying).

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All of your remarks are encouraging, thank you. It would be nice to sleep through the night and not be afraid to drink when out and about. Now.... what are Ben Wa Balls?

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Oh.... blush, I looked them up. Interesting.

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(right) I don't mention those balls anywhere around my husband. Just not interested in experimenting with that sort of thing at this point in my life. (blushing)

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(right) I don't mention those balls anywhere around my husband. Just not interested in experimenting with that sort of thing at this point in my life. (blushing)

With all due respect, if one employs those balls, watch out when you sneeze! Bang - zoom!

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Definitely much better!

Pre-op, I definitely had "stress incontinence" as it's been defined above.

And now, 60+ pounds lighter, I don't.

I'm not saying if I sneeze or cough a lot that I don't "leak." But it's nothing like the embarrassing condition I'd gotten myself into with weight gain.

It was even a qualifying comorbidity for surgery / insurance. :)

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Glad to hear that. It does get embarrassing having to always know where the restroom is at all times.

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wannaBthinsoon Oh those balls hummmm, I watched a gal on you tube discribe them. Yeah, not for me. I wouldn't want to drop one along the trail somewhere!

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