There are many things that make it more likely that you'll get stress incontinence.

Most women start getting problems with leaking urine after they have a baby. A survey of more than 15,000 women under 65 showed that stress incontinence happens to:

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Rortveit G, Daltveit AK, Hannestad YS, et al.
Urinary incontinence after vaginal delivery or cesarean section. Norwegian EPINCONT Study.
New England Journal of Medicine. 2003; 348: 900-907.

 

 

 

 

 

¹

The number of children you have also increases your risk. About three-quarters of women who have had three births through the vagina get some urine leaking out.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Sampselle CM, Burns PA, Dougherty MC, et al.
Continence for women: evidence-based practice.
Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing. 1997; 26: 375-385.

 

 

 

 

 

²

Doctors think that your pelvic floor muscles get weakened as the baby passes through your vagina.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Sampselle CM, Burns PA, Dougherty MC, et al.
Continence for women: evidence-based practice.
Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing. 1997; 26: 375-385.

 

 

 

 

 

² These muscles help to support your bladder and hold in urine. If they don't work properly, urine can leak out. But these muscles may also come under pressure during pregnancy itself. This may be the reason that even women who have a cesarean delivery are at increased risk of stress incontinence. Having a baby by forceps delivery (where doctors use force to pull a baby out through your vagina) can be especially harmful to these muscles.

Very few women younger than 30 (only about 3 in 100) get incontinence. But the risk goes up as you get older. About a third of women older than 80 get incontinence.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Simeonova Z, Milsom I, Kullendorff A-E, et al.
The prevalence of urinary incontinence and its influence on the quality of life in women from an urban Swedish population.
Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. 1999; 78: 546-551.

 

 

 

 

 

³

As you get older, your muscles get weaker. This includes your pelvic floor muscles. And as you go through

 

 

 

 

 

menopause
When a woman stops having periods, it is called menopause. This usually happens around the age of 50.

 

 

 

 

 

menopause, your body makes less of a

 

 

 

 

 

hormones
Hormones are chemicals that are made in certain parts of the body. They travel through the bloodstream and have an effect on other parts of the body. For example, the female sex hormone estrogen is made in a woman's ovaries. Estrogen has many different effects on a woman's body. It makes the breasts grow at puberty and helps control periods. It is also needed to get pregnant.

 

 

 

 

 

hormone called estrogen. Estrogen helps to keep your muscles healthy, especially the sphincter muscles at the bottom of your bladder. So during menopause, these muscles may get weaker.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Martin CM.
Urinary incontinence in the elderly.
The Consultant Pharmacist. 1997; 12.

 

 

 

 

 

⁴

Your pelvic floor muscles and your sphincter muscles help keep urine in your bladder. If they get weak, urine can leak out.

If you smoke, or have smoked in the past, you're twice as likely to get incontinence as a non-smoker.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Bump RC, McClish DK.
Cigarette smoking and urinary incontinence in women.
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 1992; 167: 1213-1218.

 

 

 

 

 

⁵ Doctors think that smoking might increase the risk of stress incontinence because you’re more likely to cough if you smoke and the chemicals in smoke may affect the bladder and muscles around it.

If you're very overweight (

 

 

 

 

 

obesity
If your body stores more energy than you need for daily functioning, this can make you overweight. The excess energy is stored in your fat cells. If your weight goes above a certain level, doctors call this obesity. Obesity is considered a medical condition. The excess weight can be a strain on your bones and joints. And if you are obese, you're more likely to get other diseases. Doctors have developed a scale for telling how much excess weight you have. This measure, called the body mass index (BMI), depends on your height.

 

 

 

 

 

obese), the extra pounds you carry put more pressure on the muscles around your bladder. This can make them weaker and less able to hold urine in your bladder.

If you have a cesarean section, a hysterectomy or another kind of surgery in this area, there is a small chance that some of the muscles could be damaged. This could make it more likely that you'll get stress incontinence. But this is rare.

Illnesses that make you cough a lot, such as

 

 

 

 

 

bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of the major airways (also called bronchi) that lead in and out of your lungs.

 

 

 

 

 

bronchitis, put extra pressure on the muscles in your abdomen. This includes the muscles around your bladder neck. If these get weaker, it can lead to stress incontinence.

There's some evidence that if you have a sister who has stress incontinence, then you're more likely to get it than if you have a sister who doesn't have it.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Buchsbaum GM, Duecy EF, Kerr LA, et al.
Urinary incontinence in nulliparous women and their parous sisters.
Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2005; 106: 1253-1258.

 

 

 

 

 

⁶ This suggests that there might be genes that you inherit from your parents that make you more likely to get stress incontinence.

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