It’s a common problem that can affect men and women of any age. Incontinence can happen for a variety of reasons.

Kristen Parisi, a physical therapist on staff with Lee Memorial Health System, says it can be an embarrassing problem for patients. “A lot of people are embarrassed to come forward that they have this problem but it’s actually pretty common and it’s something that can be treated in a conservative means.”

She says women can experience incontinence during pregnancy or after delivery. “It is something you see in children, athletes, gymnasts, long distance runners, anything that can fatigue the pelvic floor muscles.”

Patients with incontinence will often experience frequency and urgency to go to the bathroom. “You can have frequency where somebody goes to the bathroom often more than the average number of times a day. That can then turn into a problem where you end up having leakage related to that,” said Parisi.

The treatments are medication and physical therapy, where patients learn how to strengthen their pelvic floor muscles to prevent leakage. “A lot of people have heard the term Kegel but most people don’t know necessarily how they’re doing it or if they’re doing it correctly. Basically Kegel is a contraction of this muscle and it helps close off the urethra to prevent urine from coming out of the body when they don’t want it to,” said Parisi.

She says the Kegel exercises help patients better control the problem. “We have pretty good success in being able to manage this. It makes the individual feel empowered when they can take care of the problem themselves and if it for whatever reason comes back later in life they will have the tools to be able to manage it.”

Parisi says it’s a temporary problem patients don’t have to live with forever.


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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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