Chronic constipation and coughing incontinence

Chronic Consipation and/or Cough

Despite being two unrelated problems, suffering from chronic constipation and coughing can cause significant damage to the pelvic floor muscles.

When you’re experiencing constipation, you spend time every day straining the pelvic floor muscles trying “to go”. The strain and pressure you place on your pelvic floor muscles by doing this, makes them weaker and weaker each time you strain.

If you already suffer from incontinence problems, pushing and straining against them will only weaken them more and cause additional damage.

Every time you strain a stool, the whole of the pelvic floor is pushed down by the pressure and bulging, causing further stretching.

The same pressure is applied to the pelvic floor when you cough and although it may not be as strong as the pressure from constipation, coughing is done numerous times a day, especially when you are ill.

This means smokers and asthma sufferers are particularly at risk of damaging their pelvic floor muscles through coughing, and as a result, need to have stronger pelvic floor muscles, which can be effectively done by doing pelvic floor exercises and the “holding on” mechanism.

Pelvic floor exercises are useful for treating this cause of incontinence and to reduce the strain from coughing, supporting the perineum with a firm hand can save the area from damage by not letting it stretch with every cough.

Using pelvic floor aids, such as Aquaflex cones and the Pelvic Floor Educator are ideal ways to take treatment for the pelvic floor muscles into your own hands. These effective solutions are easy to use yourself at home and using them for a short time each day can help to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.

This cause of incontinence is also linked with age related incontinence, as it’s common for elderly women to suffer incontinence after suffering from illnesses, such as pneumonia. The constant coughing, combined with being in bed for a significant amount of time, causes the pelvic floor to loose its strength by the constant straining of coughing.