Urodynamic Testing
Reproductive and urinary tract issues can be intertwined.
What happens in one system can affect the flow of the other.
The Oxford Clinic for Women team can help you diagnose incontinence issues and design custom treatment plans to help ease the symptoms affecting your day-to-day life. Urodynamic testing can help pinpoint malfunctions, leaks and blockages in the lower urinary tract.
Stress incontinence is one of the most common problems for women who can potentially benefit from urodynamic testing. Over time, the demands of pregnancy, obesity and aging can weaken pelvic floor muscles and push internal structures like the bladder out of alignment. This form of incontinence occurs when laughing, coughing, sneezing or other abdominal exertion cause urine to leak. By some estimates, it affects more than half of middle age and post-menopausal women. However, women do not have to accept it as a normal part of aging.
Urodynamics includes a range of tests that look at the function of the urinary tract. These tests measure the way urine is stored and then released, information which can point toward the source of incontinence and illuminate solutions.
These tests may include cytometry, which checks the pressure and volume of fluid in the bladder, or uroflowmetry, which measures urine flow. There are pressure tests such as urethral pressure profile – examining urethral function – and leak point pressure, which determines the bladder or abdominal pressure when leakage occurs due to increased abdominal pressure.
Not everyone with stress incontinence will need urodynamic testing. The American College of Gynecology recommends urodynamics for complicated cases, such as when stress incontinence is accompanied by frequent urinary tract infections. As with any medical test, it should be used when the information gathered will inform treatment decisions you and your physician will make together.
FAQs
+ Does urodynamic testing require a trip to the hospital?
No. Oxford Clinic for Women offers this innovative testing in our offices. The tests do not require general anesthesia.
+ Is incontinence just part of aging?
While conditions like stress incontinence are very common in middle age and post-menopausal years, women don’t just have to live with them. If incontinence is impacting your daily life, we have a range of treatments that can help address the symptoms.
+ Are there different kinds of incontinence?
Stress incontinence occurs when sneezing, laughing, coughing or physical activity cause urine to leak. Urge incontinence is characterized by repeated, frequent urge to urinate, even if the bladder isn’t full.
