Soniya tells us, “My husband, always in the toilet! Sometimes, it seems he was born in there too. Kids want to pee before going to school, par toilet seat par toh ye virajman hain. Whenever we go out, he uses the washroom ten times before he is ready to go. I’m done touching up my make-up twice till then. His ‘nature calls’ are more annoying than calls from his boss.”
Soniya isn’t mean, she’s just exhausted. The management of retention of urine is such a natural process that most of us never give much thought to it. However, when it goes awry—things can get very tough both for the patient and their caregiver.
What is bladder distension?
Bladder distension or urinary retention is a condition in which your bladder is not emptying itself all the way, so you keep feeling like you need to rush to the bathroom. Even after you have passed a large volume of urine, you feel full. You might experience a frequent, urgent need to urinate all the time.
Urinary retention management can be difficult. The constant pressure in your bladder can make it difficult to say if you really do need to use the washroom. Your flow of life may be disturbed and it may often feel like you’re losing control over it. You should look out for early symptoms, because a treatment sought early can help treat the condition early and with ease while preventing any long term complications.
To know more about bladder distension treatment, keep going.
Urinary Retention Treatment
You could be suffering from one of the two types of bladder retention:
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Acute urinary retention – this type of urinary retention can be life threatening. It lasts for a short duration of time, but happens suddenly and prevents you from passing urine at all even if your bladder has reached its limit.
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Chronic urinary retention – this type of urinary retention develops over a long period of time. You are able to empty your bladder but not completely.
Your doctor’s management of urinary retention may depend on the type of bladder retention you’re suffering from.
How can you treat Urinary Retention?
You might be recommended to undergo medical procedures or use some devices to treat urinary retention. Some of these are:
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Vaginal pessary (for women)
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Transurethral water vapor therapy, or Rezum
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Transurethral electrovaporization
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Prostatic urethral lift, or UroLift
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Urethral dilation
Urinary Retention in Male and Female
Pregnancy and childbirth are the most common causes of urinary retention in women. It might happen immediately after birth/ pregnancy or it might even develop over the years. This happens because a developing fetus bears down upon the bladder which is located directly beneath it. the nerves and the pelvic floor muscles responsible for the holding and releasing of urine from the bladder could be damaged too.
Another reason why women might suffer from urinary retention is UTIs or urinary tract infections. Infections of the urinary tract can cause swelling of the urethra or weakness of the bladder, leading to retention of the urine in the bladder.
A major reason why men might suffer from urinary retention is enlargement of the prostate gland. Often times, the prostate has a blockage. This leads to an increase in its size. The prostate starts pressing on the urethra. This can lead to chronic urinary retention in men.
Why is urinary retention more common in men?
More than 50% men suffer from an enlarged prostate after the age of fifty. The numbers shoot to a whopping 90% in men who are older than eighty years of age. The first thing that an enlarged prostate does is cause urinary issues such as urinary retention. It can cause other urinary issues too such as feeling a frequent urge to urinate, finding it difficult to start urination, a weak urine stream and leaking urine. And this is why urinary retention is more common among men.
Medicine/Drugs for Urinary Retention
There’s no need to feel ashamed or embarrassed of your situation because it’s possible that an effective management of urinary retention might completely cure you of your condition.
A doctor can help better diagnose the problem and give you medicine for passing urine. You can seek treatment and further testing from a urologist, proctologist, or pelvic floor specialist.
Your healthcare professional may prescribe these urinary retention drugs:
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Anti- biotic
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Alpha-blockers
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5-alpha reductase inhibitors
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A combination of a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor and an alpha-blocker
Just because you have found a list, we do not recommend you to go to town with these prescriptions on your own. Treatment is better left up to a medical professional, because they can treat you according to your health and physical condition. Go to a doctor and do as they say.
Are there any home remedies for Urinary Retention?
Absolutely! By making small changes to your lifestyle you can make a huge difference. Home remedies for urinary retention include basic musts such as eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, performing Kegels exercise, bladder training, etc.
However, you shouldn’t rely on these alone. Take advice from your doctor. If they suggest you don’t need urinary retention medications, you can keep doing the home remedies, or pair them up with the medicine for urine blockage.
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