Incontinence, or difficulty controlling urinary flow, is treated based on its cause. If the incontinence is caused by BPH, or an enlarged prostate, then treatment will involve taking steps to shrink the prostate. Please see BPH treatments for more information.
Another potential cause of incontinence is weak muscles in the urinary tract. This type of incontinence usually occurs when you put pressure on the abdominal muscles, such as when you sneeze or laugh. To treat this type of incontinence, you may be given pelvic floor exercises to help strengthen the weak muscles. The improvement in your ability to control your urinary flow is seen after a few months of consistently doing these exercises.
Medications are another option for treating incontinence. Anticholinergic drugs will work to calm an overactive bladder that can be a cause of incontinence. If the incontinence is caused by a urinary tract infection or an inflamed prostate, you may be given antibiotics to control the infection. There are even medications available that will work to relax and contract the appropriate muscles that are affecting your bladder control.
If these less invasive treatment options do not work to treat your incontinence, then you may have to have surgery. Men who have weak urinary sphincters can benefit from having an artificial urinary sphincter placed around the neck of the bladder. This device keeps the bladder closed until you are ready to urinate. You will then press a valve that is under your skin to release the urine. There are other surgical options as well, and your doctor will be the one to determine which surgery will work best for your particular need.
Impotence
Like incontinence, impotence is treated based on its cause. Some men are impotent because they have a problem with blood flow. Hypertension, cholesterol, and obesity can lead to this type of impotence. These conditions are treated best through lifestyle changes. Sometimes medications can be used to deal with the impotence while the underlying medical cause is being treated.
The most common way to treat impotence is through drug therapy. The drugs used to treat the condition focus on dilating the blood vessels that supply blood to the penis, thus allowing the man to achieve an erection. Drugs can be delivered via a pill, injections, or suppositories, with the pill being the most popular choice among most patients.
Men who are facing impotence because of prostate surgery may need a more aggressive treatment option, such as an internal penile implant. This is a device that is implanted surgically into the man’s penis. Some of these implants cause a permanent erection, while others are inflatable, allowing the penis to return to its normal relaxed state after intercourse. These treatments make it impossible for a man to achieve an erection naturally, and should only be considered when no other treatment option will work.
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