
Tips to Stop Urine Leaks
Urinary leaks are embarrassing and inconvenient at any age, but especially for young women participating in sports. These tips can help women strengthen their pelvic muscles and reduce leakage.
Nov 29, 2018
Your BodyBy Amanda Fisher, for Women's Health Foundation
As a physical therapist specializing in women's health and pelvic physical therapy, I have seen a trend toward younger and younger female athletes coming into the clinic embarrassed and concerned about leaking urine while playing sports.
If you are like me, you have had this happen too many times. You may have lost control from laughing too hard, running too fast or jumping while playing a sport. No matter when it happened, you knew it wasn't supposed to be like that.
The leaking of urine—what is called incontinence—started happening to me while playing high school sports. I played volleyball and basketball year round and ran in my off time to stay in shape.
The first time I "peed my pants" I was landing from spiking a volleyball. I remember thinking, why is this happening? I quickly rubbed the wetness away, pulled my legs together so no one could see the trickle and continued to play, hoping no one saw the embarrassment on my face.
I would find myself changing my underwear and shorts after practice or a game to cover it up. I used to think I just sweated a lot "down there" during my workouts. Well, I was wrong. The older I got, the more I worked out and the more I leaked urine. When was I going to grow out of this? It seemed like it was never going to end.
I started running half marathons and noticed a lot of people had urine running down their legs during the race. I even read in a fitness magazine, "You are not a true runner until you have wet your pants." Well, it looked like I was finally a REAL runner. Ha! But the reality was it was not funny, and I was tired of this problem
Seeing other people having the same issue, I started realizing I was not alone and this leakage could not be the norm!
Read Easy Ways to Lessen Urine Leakage.
This is one reason I chose to become a physical therapist. My passion is to help females not have to go through the humiliation I went through. To make sure you don't have to experience the severity of incontinence that I did, I have come up with a few tips for you. I sincerely believe that if you read this and do what is recommended, you can reduce your leakage while exercising and become a more confident female and athlete.
Urinary incontinence can be embarrassing at any age or stage in life, but particularly for younger females and athletes. These tips can help you decrease or avoid leaking with your sports participation in the future.
Amanda Fisher, DPT, is a physical therapist with a doctorate in physical therapy from Rockhurst University. She is the owner and physical therapist at Empower Your Pelvis – Physical Therapy, Health & Wellness in Kansas City, Missouri.