Those exercises some people call kegel exercises, k-e-g-e-l. Women are told to do their kegel exercises every time we go in to see the gynecologist, but men don’t realize that sometimes they also should be doing kegel exercises, particularly if they’ve had any kind of procedures that have affected the urethra. When your pelvic muscles are strong, it can help you keep from leaking urine. And the best way to help you understand that is to go back to the basics of how the bladder and the urethra function. The bladder is a muscle in a very relaxed stage while you’re filling, and it contracts to urinate. The urethra works exactly the opposite. It’s contracted while you’re filling so you stay dry, and relaxes to urinate. So the bladder and the urethra work exactly opposite of each other when they’re working properly. So the pelvic floor muscle when you’re doing your exercises is to enhance what’s happening to that process. So when you’re ready for your urine stream to stop, if you contract your pelvic floor muscle, you’re helping close off the urethra. Now there’s two procedures that you can use in conjunction with your exercises.

One is called stress suppression, and that’s when you are trying to suppress the leakage that you have when you cough, laugh, sneeze, bend. If you’ll contract your muscles, it’ll help you keep the urethra closed. If you have urge incontinence where your bladder does some extra contractions, if you can do quick flex where you contract and relax your muscle five times in a row, sometimes that’s just enough to calm your muscle so that you don’t leak. If you want more help with your pelvic floor muscles, please make an appointment. We can evaluate them, kind of coach you on how to do your exercises. Let us know if we can help.