Whether you have a cold or just a tickle in your throat, if you’ve experienced incontinence when coughing, you’re not alone.  This may also happen when you sneeze or even laugh.  This involuntary leakage of urine is known as stress incontinence and it’s not something to be embarrassed about.  Keep reading to learn more about why this happens and what you can do about it.

Why Do I Pee a Little When I Cough?

1 in 3 women over 35 deal with stress incontinence, which means you may experience leaking or incontinence when coughing, sneezing, laughing, or running.  The culprit is your pelvic floor.  The pelvic floor muscles support your bladder and urethra and when you have a weak pelvic floor, stress from things like coughing can cause a small amount of urine to leak.

What Causes Stress Incontinence?

Stress incontinence is the most common type of incontinence.  Many women experience incontinence following childbirth and delivery, but it can also be caused by changing hormone levels in menopause, obesity, and chronic coughs.

How Do I Stop Incontinence When Coughing?

The good news is that stress incontinence is treatable!  The first step for many to do Kegel exercises regularly.  You can perform Kegels manually or you can stimulate the pelvic floor muscles with a device like Elitone.  Seeing a pelvic floor therapist who can provide personalized exercises to help strengthen your pelvic muscles can also help to improve stress incontinence.  Another technique to help with incontinence when coughing is do a Kegel just as you cough.  This may take some practice but it can help to stop leaking.