Overactive Bladder Symptoms

Overactive bladder (OAB) is defined as being a chronic urological condition that causes urgency, with or without urge incontinence, and commonly with frequency and nocturia. The cause of this condition is unknown, but researchers are sure that it involves dysfunction of the detrusor muscle.

Recent surveys have found that about one in six American or European adults suffers from symptoms caused by OAB. With this in mind it is estimated that there are more than 33 million adults in America with OAB which is common in both men and women. OAB increases with age.

To help manage your OAB symptoms you will need to modify your lifestyle. This can include fluid restriction, caffeine restriction, bladder retraining, antimuscarinic drugs such as darifenacin, hyoscyamine, oxybutynin, tolterodine, solifenacin, and trospium. There are also various other devices that are helpful in curing OAB symptoms.

- OAB is one of the most uncomfortable conditions to suffer from whether you experience frequent urination, or urge incontinence. There are symptoms checklists that you should consider and take with you to your doctors' appointment. These checklists can help in determining the best treatment option for you. Here are some of the questions that will likely be included:

Do you frequently experience the following?

- Get up to urinate two or more times in a single night
- Urinating more than eight times in a 24 hour period
- Feel an overwhelming and uncontrollable urge to urinate
- Urinary incontinence, control problems, leaking

If you have too, plan your trips and excursions around the bathrooms. Knowing where they are and how many are there and experiencing anxiety about having to use them, then you may be suffering from OAB. Also if you are using adult incontinence devices, such as adult diapers or mattress protection liners, these are also sign that you are suffering from OAB.

The symptoms of OAB do not appear suddenly and all at once. This affliction comes on gradually so you may find yourself adjusting your lifestyle little by little. The anxiety of OAB my be limiting your lifestyle and you might be unwittingly accepting the limitations imposed on your day to day ability to do the things you would like to be doing.

You don't have to accept OAB as art of the normal process of aging, you can fight back and reclaim your ability to live and enjoy a normal active life. Don't let OAB come between you and all the things you would like to do. Talk to your doctor about these symptoms if you are experiencing them. You don't have to live your life with these preventable limitations. Don't accept OAB, fight it. Call your doctor soon.

Article by Sven Ullmann, who runs Deserved Health - information on health for you and your family. Read more about overactive bladder symptoms. Get our health newsletter.