Bladder Muscle Problems

If you rush to the bathroom frequently---even when you just used the bathroom---or you feel urine leak when you laugh or cough, you're not alone. About 13 million U.S. adults suffer from bladder problems, according to HealthiNation. Bladder problems are usually associated with physical changes such as pregnancy or surgery, gender, or age. There are different types of bladder problems.

Stress

• With stress incontinence, there's pressure on your bladder. This pressure can occur in instances where you exercise, sneeze, laugh or cough. Stress incontinence is the most common bladder problem. It usually affects women, but men who've had their prostate gland removed can also suffer from stress incontinence.

Urge

• Urge incontinence, or overactive bladder, is caused by the pelvic floor muscle underneath the bladder. Usually, the pelvic floor muscle contracts to keep the urine from leaking from the bladder and to support the bladder. However, when the muscle involuntarily contracts, you may feel a constant need to urinate even when the bladder is not full. The need to use the bathroom can sometime cause accidents if you can't get to the bathroom on time. Overactive bladder can have no cause at all or be caused by nerve damage, strokes or side effects from drugs.

Functional

• Functional incontinence is similar to overactive bladder because bathroom location is the issue. There may be a problem that can keep people from getting to the bathroom fast enough. For instance, the problems can include having to transfer from a wheelchair to the toilet, removing clothes to use the bathroom or a disease like Parkinson's disease. Another cause of functional incontinence can be medications like sedatives.

Neurogenic

• With neurogenic bladder problems, the nervous system causes the loss of normal bladder functions. So, you can have one of two problems. Your bladder can be underactive, which means that your bladder is unable to completely empty. Or it can be overactive, which gives you the sensation that you have to urinate frequently. Neurogenic bladder risk factors can include tumors and spinal cord damage.

Others

• With overflow incontinence, the bladder doesn't empty all the way when you urinate. Therefore, you can experience a constant leak or dribble of urine. Overflow incontinence occurs in men more than women. The causes of the overflow are nerve damage from diabetes, prostate issues or side effects from medications. Mixed incontinence occurs if you have bladder problem symptoms from urge and stress incontinences.