Do you involuntarily leak urine when you put stress on your bladder by coughing, sneezing, standing, exercising, or engaging in any physical activity? If so, then you probably have stress urinary incontinence, or SUI.

As the name suggests, SUI is the condition where you leak urine when you "stress" the bladder or increase the intra-abdominal pressure. Just standing up or stepping off a curb can cause leakage--which can be discouraging to even the most optimistic of women.

Recent studies show that 26% of women over the age of 18 have experienced SUI. Experts estimate that general urinary incontinence affects 18 million women in the U.S. Specifically it affects 33% of women ages 45 to 64, and 24% of women ages 25 to 44. Sixty percent of women who have urinary incontinence suffer from SUI, which is the most common form of incontinence.

Risk Factors for SUI
Certain factors can put you at risk for developing SUI. These include any activities that weaken the pelvic floor muscles, such as chronic coughing. Specifically, risk factors for SUI include:

• Being female (twice as many women have SUI than men)
• Childbirth
• Chronic coughing (such as chronic bronchitis and asthma)
• Aging
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Steroid Use
• Smoking

The good news is that conservative therapies, such as medication and weight loss, often vastly improve SUI symptoms. For instance, in one study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, women who lost 8 percent of their body weight, or about 17 pounds, reduced their leakage incidences by almost half. That's a lot!

Want to learn more? Read up on SUI here:

Is This You?
About Stress Urinary Incontinence
How the Story Ends

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alosojos/304603500