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New Horizons in Incontinence Treatment: The Versatility of the O-Shot® Procedure
Embark on a journey towards reclaiming control over bladder leakage with the O-Shot® Procedure, a groundbreaking treatment addressing various forms of incontinence. Whether you’re grappling with stress urinary incontinence, urge urinary incontinence or postpartum fecal incontinence, the O-Shot® Procedure offers a beacon of hope, merging innovative science with your body’s natural healing capabilities.
Incontinence, the involuntary loss of bladder or bowel control, can manifest as stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge urinary incontinence (UUI), or fecal incontinence, particularly postpartum. These conditions can significantly impact daily life, emotional well-being, and social confidence. Understanding these challenges is the first step in addressing them effectively.
The O-Shot® Procedure employs platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections to fortify pelvic floor muscles and surrounding tissues. For SUI, it strengthens the urinary sphincter. In cases of UUI, it helps in stabilizing the bladder’s involuntary contractions. For postpartum fecal incontinence, the treatment focuses on enhancing rectal sphincter tone and sensitivity. This multifaceted approach aids in reducing involuntary leakage and improving overall pelvic health.
Incontinence is a urological medical condition that affects many throughout the world. It is the loss of voluntary control over urination for any number of reasons. This lack of bladder control can result in embarrassment and feelings of shame among those suffering from it, and severely affects the quality of their life. Urinary incontinence can occur at any age, in both men and women, and can be caused due to a number of factors.
Urge Incontinence – Loss of bladder control is preceded by an intense sudden urge to urinate.
Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) – This type of incontinence is due to physical stress putting pressure on the bladder, resulting in urine leakage.
This type of incontinence is one of the most common variations of involuntary loss of bladder control. In Stress urinary incontinence (SUI), any type of physical activity or exertion can lead to urine leakage. This is due to the increased abdominal pressure that happens during such activities such as jumping, coughing or even laughing, which in turn exposes bladder to increased pressure as well. This ‘stress’ caused by these physical activities leads to urinary leakage. There is no warning before the leakage of urine happens.
Depending on the situation and individual, urine might leak out in small amounts or empty the bladder completely. In SUI, the leakage of urine happens without the contraction of bladder muscles and there is no discernible urge to urinate that the individual can anticipate.
SUI takes place when the urethral sphincter or pelvic floor muscles or both cannot reliably hold urine in the bladder. This might be due to structural damage or weakness leading to these issues. Women who deliver children vaginally (natural birth method) are more prone to develop SUI because giving birth can potentially damage nerves and pelvic floor muscles.
The risk of developing SUI is further dependent on the age of the mother, number of births, the length of labor and the size of the baby.
SUI can be divided into two main variants.
Stress Urinary Incontinence is a very common condition among women, which is often under-reported due to the associated shame and sense of embarrassment. Nearly one out of every three women have stress incontinence, but less than half of them ever discuss their symptoms with their physician or seek help. They go through their lives struggling to deal with the significant negative impact that SUI has on the quality of their lives.
Women who play sports such as running, jumping and a lot of physical strain report some leakage of urine at least half the time when they are participating in these activities.
Stress incontinence can occur at any age, but increasing age is a significant factor in the development of SUI.
Certain other risk factors that increase the possibility of developing stress incontinence include:
Stress urinary incontinence is a chronic medical condition that can severely affect the quality of life for women who have it. It has a direct negative impact on the lives of these women, as they have to deal with the inevitable leakage of urine every waking hour. Their lives become limited to deciding which activities they can do and to calculate how far the restrooms are from them at any given moment, whether at work, home, on a family day outing or simply running errands.
SUI makes women extremely conscious of their bodies. They learn the hard way to be extra mindful when they cough, sneeze, laugh, exercise, run or even bend over because they can’t be sure of what movement or action will result in unintended leakage of urine. This uncertainty of impending leakage of urine and the constant running to the bathroom throughout the day is not only a nuisance physically by causing exertion but also results in mental anguish and exhaustion.
Dealing with SUI means that women have to come up with various coping mechanisms to ensure that they are able to limit the influence of SUI on their daily lives and activities as much as possible. Women do this by having to wear darker color pants, so an accident if it happens, is less visible and reduces embarrassment.
They tend to give up activities they once enjoyed such as exercising, playing with kids, doing yoga, running, jumping and any other number of daily activities. Another way women counter the urgency to urinate and prevent accidental leakage is by making frequent timed visits to the restroom to empty the bladder, whether there was an urgency or not.
When SUI threatens to become severely debilitating in their daily lives, or when these women have to sit through long meetings and work hours, they have to wear adult diapers and pads to ensure that they can get through a regular workday with some semblance of normalcy. They often keep an extra pair of underwear and pants always at hand, changing them frequently as needed.
The issue with all of these attempts to reduce the impact of SUI is that they don’t actually solve the issue or reduce the occurrence of the related urinary accidents. These tips and tricks are simply an effort to limit SUI from disturbing their daily lives. Even if these tips help them retain a sense of normalcy, they are highly draining, both physically and mentally.
SUI is a medical condition that literally holds the sufferer hostage, as if they are chained to a restroom every day, only able to do a certain number of things on any given day. The problem is very embarrassing to women, resulting in feelings of self-shame, low self-esteem and depression, due to an issue they have no control over. They have to avoid doing what they enjoy and also abstain from exercising which can lead to other health problems.
In the beginning, women dealing with SUI will have to deal with wet pants, when they least expect it, as there is literally no warning before the involuntary leakage of urine happens.
SUI can affect the daily lifestyle of any woman, whether single or married, working or otherwise. It can lead to problems when dating, due to the heightened sense of self-scrutiny and shame, and the embarrassment associated with having to tell their partner about this intimate problem.
They feel they must be extra cautious during sex. This problem can even lead them to avoid intimacy completely in order to avoid any embarrassing accidents. As a woman with children, SUI can severely debilitate a mother’s active role as a parent. It becomes difficult to actively play with the children, especially outdoor activities, due to the constant fear of leakage, and having to locate the nearest restroom.
All in all, SUI is a common medical condition among women, and its psychological and physical impact on their daily lives is severely arresting. Over the years they have been a number of treatment modules that have been designed to reduce or treat SUI, but not all of them result in similar results or often have negative ramifications.
Some of these common treatments are discussed followed by the more painless, longer lasting new treatments, to give your life back to you and reduce the impact of SUI on your daily activities significantly.
Currently, this is one of the most common procedures, surgical or otherwise, performed to correct SUI and its associated symptoms. It is a surgical option, in which a sling made of either tissue or artificial material is placed underneath the urinary sphincter, to prevent it from moving downwards as a result of abdominal pressure, preventing leakage.
The sling also supports a weakened sphincter, increasing the threshold before urine leakage occurs. This treatment option had a good overall success rate and a long term cure rate of 70-95%. However, recent analysis has revealed that the actual cure rate might be lower than what has been reported in past studies.
There are associated risks with any surgery, and the pubo-vaginal sling procedure is major surgery. If the sling is tied too tightly, it can actually lead to a urethral obstruction, which can cause problems when urinating.
Other complications include hemorrhage, infection, the risks of anesthesia, the formation of blood clots, unintended injury to pelvic nerves, muscles and even damage to the bladder. The success of the surgery is dependent on the experience of the doctor and the material used.
Finally, surgical procedures are not inexpensive, many result in surgical scars, and have a longer recovery time.
As established above, the pubo-vaginal sling surgery in itself is major surgery. In addition to that, there are certain added risks of using an artificial mesh which can take place in certain cases.
Along with urethral obstruction caused by a tight sling, artificial mesh has also been associated with vaginal prolapse and a rarer side effect of mesh exposure into the vagina after surgery. These side effects are rare, and currently, mesh sling surgeries are considered a standard solution for SUI.
One obvious solution to prevent soiling of underwear and pants and reducing the number of trips made to the restrooms during a work day is the use of adult diapers.
By wearing diapers or pads, one can continue doing their work or running their errands until they are able to reach a bathroom and change diapers. Diapers may reduce the fear of leakage of urine in public or before a toilet can be reached.
The decision to wear adult diapers is not easy. The added reminder of the loss of bladder control whenever they change diapers results in further feelings of self-shame and low self-confidence as an adult.
In addition to the mental ramifications, wearing adult diapers adds a lot of restriction to one’s life. There are certain clothing items that can no longer be worn because they wouldn’t be able to hide the diaper underneath, causing embarrassment.
It also restricts movement due to its added bulk and diapers are quite expensive to purchase and use on a daily basis. The use of adult diapers also does nothing to solve the actual problem of SUI, but only seeks to offer a solution for urine leakage.
There are certain lifestyle changes which can help ease the SUI symptoms, though the degree of relief and effectiveness varies from individual to individual and in some cases, there might not be any relief at all. All the home remedies attempt to reduce SUI symptoms by indirect methods. Some of the healthier habits that supposedly counter symptoms of SUI include:
Reducing weight: Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher. By shedding extra weight and returning to a normal BMI, it is thought that the overall physical pressure experienced by the bladder and the muscles of the pelvic floor is reduced. It can result in mild to moderate relief of symptoms in some cases.
Eating more fiber: In certain cases, it is possible that chronic constipation is the reason behind SUI. Thus, by adding more fiber to diet such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and oatmeal, the aim is to make bowel movements more regular and softer, which would, in turn, cause a reduction in strain faced by pelvic floor muscles.
Cessation of smoking: In addition to the damage caused to the respiratory system
Avoiding food and drink which are bladder irritants: Certain food substances such as caffeinated beverages coffee, tea, etc. result in increased frequency of urination. Abstaining from these substances or reducing their intake can possibly reduce the chances of urine leakage.
Certain individuals may simply decide to accept SUI and leakage of urine throughout their days as their new reality. They may decide to seek no treatment or attempt to correct the incontinence and assent to a lower quality of life as a result.
While all the above-mentioned treatments are associated with good outcomes in many cases, the negative ramifications of the procedures themselves outweigh any good that they achieve. They are either risky, invasive in nature, require surgery, are expensive or only alleviate symptoms and provide relief for short periods of time only. This only seeks to further increase the anguish experienced by women already dealing with SUI.
A: The O-Shot® Procedure regenerative properties strengthen pelvic floor muscles, aiding in the management of SUI, UUI, and postpartum fecal incontinence.
A: While not a cure, the O-Shot® Procedure can be an effective part of a comprehensive treatment plan for managing incontinence.
Incontinence, in its various forms, can be a distressing and isolating experience. The O-Shot® Procedure offers a promising path towards improved pelvic health and a better quality of life. For more information and personalized consultation, reach out to our specialists.
