If you suffer from women's urinary incontinence, you may want to examine the medications you are taking. Some of them may be contributing to your urine leakage.

Diuretic Drugs Can Worsen Urinary Incontinence
For example, any medications that are diuretics or "water pills" greatly increase urine output, which can make your urinary incontinence symptoms worse than ever. Many medications prescribed for high blood pressure are diuretics, as are some over-the-counter pills such as Dramamine and some PMS-medications.

Any of these diuretic drugs can overwhelm your bladder's ability to "hold" urine, so you end up with urine leakage. This is especially true if your pelvic floor muscles are already weakened.

Other Drugs that Worsen Women's Urinary Incontinence
Sedative or tranquilizer drugs can also worsen symptoms of urinary incontinence because they slow your reflexes, and reduce your awareness of the urge to urinate. In other words, your brain might get the signal that you need to urinate, but is too slow to respond before you have an accident.

Anti-seizure medications such as thioridazine and haloperidol, which are known to have an alpha-blocker effect, can cause night time urine leakage. Anti-Parkinsonism drugs are also known to cause urinary incontinence.

In addition, any medications that cause chronic constipation or a constant cough can worsen urine leakage, since both of these situations tend to increase abdominal pressure. Constipation and chronic coughing are both factors that contribute to stress urinary incontinence symptoms.

What's a Woman with Urinary Incontinence to Do?
As you can see, any number of medications can affect your body's ability to control urine flow. If you suffer from women's urinary incontinence and are struggling to resolve your symptoms, check with your doctor whether any of the medications you are currently taking may be contributing to your symptoms.

If so, your doctor can often prescribe a different medication that will not cause or worsen urinary incontinence symptoms. Don't be afraid to discuss this situation with your doctor. Medications affect different people in different ways. Find out if your medications are making your urine leakage symptoms worse.

As always, being a strong health advocate for your own health is the best way to ensure you get the help you want and need for your urinary incontinence. So don't be shy ... keep asking until you get the answers you seek!

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