Four out of ten Brazilian women live with some degree of urinary incontinence, according to the qualitative research Menopause and Urinary Incontinence, released this Tuesday (14/3). The lack of information and the taboo on talking about the subject are factors that still limit the search for help.
The research carried out by Data8, a company specializing in data on the 50+ public, with consultancy from No Pausa and support from the Tena brand, shows how the condition affects the quality of life of women, with impacts on self-esteem, insecurity to leave the house , fear of odor, damage to sexual life and general health.
It is estimated that 12 million people suffer from urinary incontinence in Brazil. Worldwide, there are approximately 420 million. The most affected are women, whose risk factors are anatomy, age, obesity, number of deliveries, diabetes and menopause. But three out of ten patients are unaware that incontinence is part of menopause.
“Menopause is different for every woman. For some, urinary incontinence has a strong internal impact on self-esteem, for example”, said gynecologist Joele Lerípio, postgraduate in physiology of aging, during a press conference to present the results.
Quality of life
The research was carried out with six mini groups composed of four women aged between 40 and 60 years, from the cities of São Paulo, Salvador and Porto Alegre. The evaluators consider that the size of the groups was decisive for the participants to feel more comfortable in expressing their doubts and exposing situations they had experienced.
At first, most participants said they did not have urinary incontinence, but reported having episodes of leakage of urine when coughing, sneezing and practicing physical activity, for example. The gynecologist explains that this is a common mistake in understanding the condition, which can and should be treated in the early stages to avoid worsening.
“Urinary incontinence is any loss of urine that was not voluntary, from a large amount to a drop while running, jumping, coughing, for example”, explains Joele.
The most frequent types are:
- Effort: very common when coughing, sneezing, jumping, for example;
- Urgency: it happens more in the pre-menopause, when the woman needs to run to the bathroom because she can’t hold back;
- Mixed: combines effort and urgency. Recurrent in post-menopause;
- Overflow: in post menopause it usually happens when waking up, because the bladder fills up during the night and, when getting out of bed, it overflows.
Treatment
Treatment can be done with physiotherapy, Kegel exercises or pompoarism, radiofrequency, laser therapies, medications, palliative care or surgery in the most serious cases.
“Urinary incontinence is a disease. It needs to be treated as such”, says the gynecologist.
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