Continence Care

You should get help if you’ve had incontinence problems for more than a few weeks to rule out conditions such as diabetes.

Incontinence help from your GP

Your GP can assess whether you have incontinence and decide which type of incontinence you have. They can also:

• give general advice on controlling symptoms of incontinence
• provide information on pelvic floor exercises and bladder retraining
• provide treatment for incontinence with prescribed medicines.

If lifestyle changes and treatments don’t solve the problem, your GP can refer you to a continence adviser or specialist.

Continence clinics

Continence clinics can be based in a hospital or in the community, often attached to a health centre. They have specialist teams providing support and medical advice for people with bladder or bowel incontinence.

Speak to your GP about where your local Continence Clinic is.

Continence advisers and the incontinence physiotherapists who work alongside them, are particularly good at teaching pelvic floor exercises to women with sudden leaks (stress incontinence).

For women with regular urges to use the toilet (urge incontinence), they can provide bladder training.

They can also supply pelvic floor-strengthening devices – such as vaginal cones, and continence pads and products – and explain how to use them.

Hospital Incontinence Specialists

If the help offered by your GP or local continence clinic doesn’t meet your needs, you can be referred to a hospital urologist or urogynaecologist for tests and possible incontinence surgery.

If you have bowel incontinence, you may be referred to a colorectal surgeon or gastroenterologist.