Can Flomax Be Used by Women?

Women can't use Flomax because it is a treatment for an enlarged prostate. Other drugs, in combination with bladder training and pelvic floor exercises, can help women with incontinence.

Effects

• Flomax treats the inability to completely empty the bladder (urinary retention) caused by an enlarged prostate. Flomax reduces the symptoms of frequent urination and the sudden need to urinate.

Mechanism

• Flomax is an alpha blocker, and works by blocking alpha-1 receptors to help relax the muscles of the prostrate.

Considerations

• Urinary incontinence is more common in women than men, and becomes more common and severe as women age. The appropriate treatment depends on a woman's symptoms and type of incontinence.

Types

• Estrogen levels decline as women age, leading to urge incontinence (leakage after a sudden and irresistible need to urinate) as the urethra grows thin and irritable. Stress incontinence is urine leakage from a sudden increase in pressure on the bladder.

Treatments

• Bladder training, exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor and drugs can help women with incontinence. Imipramine or duloxetine treat stress incontinence; oxybutynin and tolterodine are useful for urge incontinence. Topical estrogen can reduce urinary complications caused by thinning of the urethra.