How to Get Overactive Bladder Treatment and Medications

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a medical condition that can lead to embarrassment and frustration. The main symptoms of overactive bladder are the urgency to urinate and feeling that you have to use the restroom frequently. For some people overactive bladder can interfere with their sleeping patterns as well as their social life because of the urgency and frequency of the need to urinate. Additionally, some people will have occasional accidents commonly referred to as being incontinent.

Things You'll Need

• journal
• doctor
• time
• insurance or money

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Instructions

• 1

  Keep a pee journal. It might sound ridiculous, but if you write down the times that you go to the bathroom, feel the urge to go suddenly, have an accident or are bothered by any of these symptoms then you might be able to uncover a pattern. Make sure to include the date, time, and place, i.e. a restaurant or at home, where the urge to go hit you. It's also helpful to write down whether or not you were able to pee a lot or if it felt like you really had to go, but only went a little bit. One symptom of overactive bladder is your bladder sending an early warning sign that your body is ready to relieve itself, but it might not always be ready.

• 2

  Make a food log or journal. Writing this down in the same place as your daily pee journal will be helpful to see if there are any patterns. Make sure to include what you are drinking, including the amounts of water and alcohol. Most people do not realize the amount of water that we take in throughout the day just through food alone.

  Keeping a food journal can be a way to find cause of your overactive bladder. There are foods and drinks that are natural diuretics (increase the amount of urine your body excretes) such as tea, caffeine, and watermelon.

• 3

  Make an appointment to see your doctor. Take your logs with you to your doctor's appointment so that you can discuss thoroughly what symptoms you are experiencing and how they are affecting your life. Sometimes it seems one problem in medicine is the lack of a patient's ability to accurately be able to describe the problem felt in the body. When this happens the treatment prescribed might not be the most appropriate or comprehensive because neither doctor or patient have thoroughly been able to discuss the issue. This is where keeping a diary about how much you pee, the sense or urgency, time of day, and a log of what you are eating can be very helpful and time saving for both you and your doctor. As well, it saves money because you might very well save yourself an extra appointment by going very prepared.

• 4

  Read about all of the medication for overactive bladder. One of the biggest side effects of these medications is dry mouth. Some commonly prescribed medications for overactive bladder are Ditropan, Detrol, and Enablex. Of course, the generics of those medications are most likely the ones covered by your insurance. Ditropan which also goes by Oxybutynin as a generic has a pretty significant percentage of people who experience dry mouth. If you and your doctor decide that an overactive bladder medication is something worth trying then make sure to continue keeping your urination log once you're on the medication. Be sure to write down any side effects that you might experience while taking the OAB medication even if you think that it is unrelated. Before taking any medication be sure to tell your doctor and pharmacist about other pills, vitamins, over-the-counter medicine, and/or supplements that you're taking so that you can avoid possible drug interactions. This is particularly true for older people who may not even realize that their medications are causing them side effects. Help them monitor their prescriptions and make sure they are safe. See the resources below for information about how to check prescription and supplement interactions.

• 5

  Use self care and treatment remedies as much as possible. Drink water! This may seem counterintuitive, but one thing that actually causes overactive bladder symptoms to worsen is when urine is too strong because the person does not consume enough water. The strong urine is acidic and can irritate the bladder and urethra making the urge to go stronger. Avoiding spicy foods can help too because they can be hard on both your stomach and your bladder.

  Use exercises to increase the muscles in the pelvic floor. When you feel the urge to urinate flex the muscles that you would as if you are going to "hold it" for a minute. Practicing this will strengthen your muscles and give you more control and sense of peace over the fear of leaking. You can also try to hold your urine for a little bit longer while contracting your muscles to attempt to retrain your muscles and brain. This should probably be practiced at home though so you know that if you are not going to be able to stop from having to empty your bladder then you can safely go.

• 6

  Be proactive. Once you get to know your overactive bladder/incontinence symptoms and when they are worse, what increases and decreases them, and so forth you will have more control over your life. There may never be the perfect solution for this condition. Some people find that wearing an absorbent pad or Depends if the problem is more severe. These can be used only at night if this is the time of day that is the hardest. Stopping large amounts of liquids about three to four hours before bedtime can help if you get up frequently over night to pee. If you restrict your liquids at night then make sure to drink plenty in the morning and afternoon. Starting your morning with a glass of water is very healthy in many ways.