• Home
  • Geriatrics Blog
    • Helping Older Parents Posts
  • Helping Older Parents
  • Podcast
    • Better Health While Aging Podcast
    • Helping Older Parents Podcast
  • Testimonials
  • About
    • About Better Health While Aging
    • About Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH
  • Courses & More

Better Health While Aging

Practical information for aging health & family caregivers

  • Popular Topics
    • Preventing Falls in Aging Adults
    • Medication Safety
    • Dementia, including Alzheimer’s
    • Advance Care Planning & End-of-Life
  • Why Geriatrics
  • Are you a caregiver?
  • How to use this site

Urinary Incontinence in Aging:
What to know when you can’t wait to go

by Nicole Didyk, MD

“I know where every bathroom is at the mall, and my wife rolls her eyes every time I have to visit one when we just arrived – even after I went before leaving the house!  What can I expect?  Most old guys are in the same boat!”

If you opened this article, you probably relate to the quote above, and you’re not unlike millions of other older adults.

Incontinence doesn’t always mean wetting yourself. It can involve urgent needs to use the toilet, frequent bathroom trips, or losing tiny amounts of urine with certain activities. 

Incontinence is more than inconvenient; it can be life-altering, leading to early retirement or social withdrawal, depression, and loss of independent function. Important incontinence stats include:

  • 1 in 3 older women and 1 in 12 older men have lower urinary tract symptoms that can include incontinence
  • Urinary incontinence cost the US economy $66 billion in 2012
  • 6-10% of nursing home admissions are due to urinary incontinence
  • Only 22% of men with urinary incontinence seek help for the problem, as compared to 45% of women

For this reason, in geriatrics, we often ask our patients about incontinence.

A while back I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Adrian Wagg, a Geriatrician-Internist and international expert in urinary incontinence.  You can listen to this interview, and find out how to download a transcript of it here.   In this article, I’ll share some of his insights about the management of incontinence in older adults, and why it remains undertreated too often.

In particular, I’ll cover:

  • How urinary function changes with age
  • Types and causes of urinary incontinence in both men and women
  • What to do if you’re experiencing urinary incontinence and want help
  • How to help manage urinary incontinence in an older person you’re caring for

What happens to the Urinary System with Aging?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog Tagged With: incontinence, overactive bladder, prostate, urinary incontinence, UTI

Yours Free: The Quick Start Guide to Checking Older Parents for Health & Safety Problems

Action Plan - Pencil and Checklist

Enter your email to download this free Quick Start Guide

Get The Guide Now »

No spam ever! We collect, use and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.

Find It Here

Disclaimer

The material on this site, including any exchanges in the comments section of the blog, is for informational and educational purposes only.

Any comments Dr. Kernisan may make regarding an individual’s story or comments should not be construed as establishing a physician-patient relationship between Dr. Kernisan and a caregiver, or care recipient.

None of Dr. Kernisan’s website or group information should be considered a substitute for individualized medical assessment, diagnosis, or treatment.

Please see the full Disclaimer for more information.

Please also carefully read our Terms & Conditions of Use, before using this site.

Creative Commons License
This work by Leslie Kernisan MD & Better Health While Aging LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at BetterHealthWhileAging.net.

Privacy Policy & Disclosures

Your privacy is very important to us. Your information will never be sold to anyone, whether you browse the site, sign up for email updates, or register for an event.

Pleae read our complete Privacy Policy for more information and for Dr. Kernisan's financial disclosures.

© 2025 Better Health While Aging, LLC · Terms & Conditions · Disclaimer · Privacy Policy · Contact Us