Overactive Bladder
What is Overactive Bladder?
Overactive bladder (OAB) is when the bladder muscles contract too soon.
It gives a strong sudden need to urinate, even when the bladder isn’t full and creates a “gotta go” sensation
Symptoms
- Strong, sudden urges to urinate
- Urinating more than 8 times in 24 hours or waking more than 2 times at night to urinate
- Strong, sudden urges to urinate
- Urinating more than 8 times in 24 hours or waking more than 2 times at night to urinate
Treatment
There are many treatment options for overactive bladder. Most people who are treated see an improvement in their symptoms.
- Lifestyle Changes: Adjusting activities that make your OAB symptoms worse – such as eating or drinking caffeine or acidic foods
- Bladder Retraining: Through retraining, you learn to resist the urge to go and increase control over how much urine your bladder can hold.
- Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy: Working with a physical therapist or health care provider who specializes in the pelvic floor muscles can help you learn to strengthen and control the muscles involved in urination.
- Medications: These relieve the frequent urges by blocking the nerve that signals your bladder to contract too soon.
- Botox for OAB – uses botulinum toxin (BOTOX®) in the bladder muscle to keep it from contracting too often.
- InterStim for OAB – uses gentle nerve stimulation thought to normalize bladder-brain communication.
- PTNS for OAB – Percutaneous Tibial Nerve Stimulation, or PTNS, is a non-surgical treatment for OAB. PTNS can help reduce OAB symptoms by relaxing the bladder muscles.
Symptoms
- Strong, sudden urges to urinate
- Urinating more than 8 times in 24 hours or waking more than 2 times at night to urinate
- Not making it to the bathroom in time
- Accidental loss of urine in small or large amounts
