The Impact of Urinary Incontinence in the Prostate Cancer Patient

Prostate cancer is a serious condition and many males that deal with treatments for prostate will often end up dealing with incontinence. If caught early enough, prostate cancer is something that can easily be treated and often cured. With urinary incontinence you have urine that escapes from the bladder often without warning or any control on your part. The problem with incontinence is that it is a very embarrassing condition to deal with and it can cause depression in a lot of people. The depression people suffer from can cause them to avoid social situations and can really hinder them from living their lives to the fullest. Since incontinence is such a private problem it is hard for you to be able to open up to anyone about it and to figure out what you can do for treatment.

Males dealing with prostate cancer often see issues with incontinence creep up because the treatments used will end up weakening the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles need to be strong in order to help support the bladder and to control urine loss. With cancer the muscles are going to be stretched out and weakened and the chemotherapy and cancer treatments only further the damage to these muscles. It can be years before you are able to gain control over these muscles again and to prevent issues with urinary incontinence. Depending upon the amount of damage that has been done, you may never be able to regain complete control over these muscles.

Other reasons why cancer patients see urinary incontinence arise is due to the drying effects of the cancer treatments. The body has natural fluids that are used to help the urethral tissues and cancer along with the treatments can easily dry it up, making it hard for the urethral tissue to contract and hold in the urine properly.

Watch this video.  How to choose the right incontinence product.

If you have had surgery on the prostate you are likely going to struggle with some urinary incontinence problems. Surgery damages the muscles and just about every nerve that signals to the brain when it is time to release the urine. When the nerves are damaged, there is not a lot of outlook for hope in the future as you will likely suffer from urge incontinence the rest of your life. Even the surgeries that are used to help repair the muscles used to hold in urine can further the damage. This is why it is so important to carefully weigh your decision on surgery and to make sure that it is absolutely necessary before you move forward with it.

Dealing with incontinence is going to be embarrassing to you but there are so many wonderful incontinence products for men on the market that it doesn’t need to be embarrassing. These products allow you to maintain your dignity as you can wear them discreetly with your regular underwear or you can replace your underwear with adult diapers or incontinence underwear. Compared to the products in the past, the new incontinence supplies that are available are much easier to wear and others will not be able to notice that you use them.

Look for incontinence products that fit snugly to your body and make sure they are able to capture all of the urine loss that you encounter. If you are dealing with a lot of urine loss, you need to increase the absorbency of the adult diapers. If you have only minor urine loss you may be able to benefit from incontinence pads instead. Shop online for incontinence products as there is a larger variety for you to choose from and you can easily find the right product to help you manage urinary incontinence.

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About The CareGiver Partnership. The CareGiver Partnership helps caregivers and their loved ones with answers to their caregiving questions, including information about home health care products and supplies, from our Wisconsin-based team of Product Specialists who are all current or former caregivers. The company’s Web site provides the largest online library of resources on subjects most important to caregivers — from arthritis to assisted living, and Parkinson’s to prostate cancer — as well as access to more than 3,000 home care products for incontinence, skin care, mobility, home safety and daily living aids. The CareGiver Partnership was founded in 2004 by Lynn Wilson of Neenah, Wisc. Visit http://www.caregiverpartnership.com to learn more or call 1-800-985-1353.

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