Elderly Care: Helping You Deal With the Dying Process
Overactive Bladder: Causes And Treatment Options
Julio Carr
If you've been experiencing the increasing need to urinate throughout the day, you may have an overactive bladder. Having an overactive bladder is common, especially among women.
What Is an Overactive Bladder?
An overactive bladder can cause a sudden and frequent need to urinate due to your bladder squeezing when it's not full. You may also experience urgency incontinence, or loss of urine. An overactive bladder commonly results in having to wake up multiple times throughout the night to urinate.
Symptoms of an Overactive Bladder
As mentioned before, the biggest symptom of an overactive bladder is the frequent urge to urinate.
Other symptoms can include:
- Bladder spasms (urgency incontinence)
- Waking up during the night to urinate
- Sudden urges to urinate
- Wetting the bed
Causes of an Overactive Bladder
It's commonly thought that age can cause overactive bladders, but that's not the case. Aging can cause a decline in your cognitive function, which can cause an overactive bladder, but age alone does not generally cause an overactive bladder.
Things that do play a part in an overactive bladder include:
- Diabetes
- Strokes
- Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
- Tumors
- Bladder stones
- Excessive alcohol or caffeine intake
- Some medications
- Hormones
Treatments for an Overactive Bladder
If you've been diagnosed with an overactive bladder, there are a few different ways to treat it. You do not have to live with an overactive bladder forever.
Lifestyle Changes
The first treatment option you may be asked to try out is changing certain aspects of your lifestyle. This means cutting out certain drinks and foods that irritate the bladder (e.g. spicy food, caffeine, alcohol, etc.). Delayed and double voiding are also things to try. Delayed voiding occurs when you purposely delay urination, gradually making the wait time longer. Double voiding occurs when you urinate once, then after a few minutes try urinating once more.
Prescription Medication
Because an overactive bladder can be due to your bladder squeezing even if it's not full, there are certain prescription medications that are able to help stop your bladder from squeezing unless it's full. The prescription will most commonly be a pill, but it's also available in a patch or gel.
Surgery Options
Most doctors want to hold off on surgery unless it's necessary. One surgery option is augmentation cystoplasty. This surgery option enlarges your bladder, so it doesn't get full as fast. Another surgery option is a urinary diversion. This means your doctor will re-route the flow of your urine. It's important to keep in mind that surgery comes with great risks. This will usually be the last option for treatment if it's offered as a treatment at all.
To learn more about overactive bladders, reach out to a local medical professional.
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As an elderly care worker, I have witnessed the deaths of many individuals. I have seen family members become angry, sad, and completely silent at the end. I have also seen individuals refuse to see family members out of denial. People deal with death in different ways, and the strong emotions are often unfamiliar and scary. If you have a parent or grandparent who is elderly, then I want to share with you what I know about end of life care and dying process. We are a society that does not talk about death, and this can cause great pain when a family member dies. Learn about the process and find out how to deal with your own emotions and how to love your family members at the end. If there is only a small amount of time left, then I want you to cherish the final moments.