Do kegels help reduce or stop bed wetting?

Archives1

Archives1

Staff member
Hi guys, how are we all holding up???
So sometimes I google different things I can do to reduce or totally stop bed wetting and
Recently I came across Kegel exercises, id really like to hear from fellow bedwetters like me if kegels really do help and how do I do/perform Kegel exercises.
Please help me.
Thank you guys 🙏
 
I do them as I was taught in pelvic therapy, but honestly, I don't think they have help me, I have struggle with my issues through out my life and since 2010, it seems I have done nothing but go in the wrong direction. (isotopic bladder, urinary retention urinary incontinence)

But I do know they have help others, so I hope they can sound off and offer you some help.
 
I think it depends on what is causing the incontinence and bedwetting. Kegels strengthen your pelvic floor (which is a good thing) but if weak pelvic floor muscles aren't the reason for the incontinence and bedwetting, kegels probably won't help to stop it.
 
An incontinence physical therapist examined me and told me not to do them. They aren't good for everyone.
 
Kegels only affect your EXTERNAL urinary sphincter. Although the male & female anatomy are obviously different, we both have an INTERNAL and an EXTERNAL sphincter. If your issue is related to a problem involving your INTERNAL sphincter (which is under involuntary control...meaning that you cannot "tell" it what to do), you can do Kegels until the cows come home and it won't have any affect on that part of your body.

That said, there may be some ancillary benefits to doing Kegels. I had a surgical procedure almost 4 years ago that resulted in tissue being removed from my bladder neck/internal sphincter. That surgery, combined with prior radiation treatment for prostate cancer, meant that my internal sphincter will not close properly, so I constantly leak urine. This problem is permanent and irreversible, short of a surgical procedure or a future stem cell treatment.

However, I do Kegels at least 5-6 days a week, as I do think the rate of my leakage is less due to a well-trained EXTERNAL sphincter. So, if you feel like they are helping you should do them. If they aren't helping, and your problem is related to your INTERNAL sphincter, then they're probably a waste of time.

Hope this helps...and good luck!
 
I hate to be a downer, but kegals affect your pelvic floor muscles ( not your external sphincter). Your internal sphincter is involuntary. Your external is voluntary (ex. I’m sitting on th a toilet and decide I need to let pee out). Kegals only works on those who have weak pelvic floor muscles. There are also “reversed kegals”, especially for males, which provides longer sexual encounters.
 
Spaz, you are correct in that Kegels affect the entire pelvic floor, of which the external sphincter is just one part. My main point is that Kegels have NO EFFECT on the internal sphincter. So, if that is where your incontinence problem lies, and you would like to directly affect your internal sphincter, then Kegels is NOT the way to do it.

I see many post on our site regarding Kegels. Some people doing Kegels have success in regaining continence, and some don't. But Kegels seems to be thrown out by the medical profession as a cure-all in almost every situation. And that's just not the case. If they are helping, great. If not, then you need to explore other solutions. And, for many of us, there is no "solution" other than managing the problem as best you can.
 
@cmulwee I’ve not once seen a post on this site saying someone’s incontinence was totally cured by Kegels. They do help a lot of us, however. For me, flexing and holding my pelvic floor as soon as I get an urge or spasm, until I get to the toilet, gives me 30-60 seconds to get to a bathroom, instead of 2-3 seconds. But I still have the urgency of the urges/spasms. I still have to empty my bladder every 2-4oz. But at least I can usually make it to the toilet now without pissing myself. Before Kegels I couldn’t do that.

You’re coming across as a know-it-all who is incredibly bitter about Kegels. Just because Kegels didn’t help you doesn’t mean they don’t help the majority of people with incontinence. Most of us would rather do Kegels than take drugs or get injections or sit around in soaking wet diapers. There’s nothing wrong with trying Kegels.

I do a combo of Kegels, Botox, Oxybutynin, and diapers. So I know Kegels only go so far. But don’t knock them for those of us who are lucky enough to get some benefit from them.

Even if Kegels don’t help someone’s incontinence, they help everyone’s sexual performance and satisfaction. I can tell when I have a partner who knows how to flex his pelvic muscle for our mutual pleasure. It makes a big difference. Kegels also help prevent vaginal and uterine prolapse in women, which happens to a third of us after age 60. All of our guts can just slip out our vaginas, permanently, which is disastrous. Kegels help reduce lumbar pain and dysfunction, particularly when transitioning positions such as from sitting to standing.

So there is nothing wrong with trying and doing Kegels. One has nothing to lose.
 
cmulwee said:
Spaz, you are correct in that Kegels affect the entire pelvic floor, of which the external sphincter is just one part. My main point is that Kegels have NO EFFECT on the internal sphincter. So, if that is where your incontinence problem lies, and you would like to directly affect your internal sphincter, then Kegels is NOT the way to do it.

I see many post on our site regarding Kegels. Some people doing Kegels have success in regaining continence, and some don't. But Kegels seems to be thrown out by the medical profession as a cure-all in almost every situation. And that's just not the case. If they are helping, great. If not, then you need to explore other solutions. And, for many of us, there is no "solution" other than managing the problem as best you can.
Click to expand...

No, the external sphincter is not part of the pelvic floor. Kegals do not affect the external sphincter.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pelvic floor muscles and the external urethral sphincter have different responses to applied bladder pressure during continence

To determine the functional innervation of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) and if there is PFM activity during an external pressure increase to the bladder in female rats.Thirty-one female adult virgin Sprague Dawley rats received an external increase ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
I was given pelvic therapy for pain, it was never considered to help my incontinence or urinary retention
 
We all have different underlying conditions (cancer, injury, disease, surgery, childbirth, etc, etc) that are causing our incontinence issues. I don't suggest anyone stop doing Kegels, or don't try Kegels, as I still do Kegels 4-5 days a week. But I see post after post where people have been doing Kegels for a while, and express surprise that their incontinence is not yet "cured". They want to know, "Well, how much longer till I'm cured?". In fact I was one of those people....until I learned that Kegels were not directly treating the problem (intrinsic sphincter deficiency) that I have.

I just have a problem when a good treatment protocol (ie. Kegels) is oversold as a general cure for incontinence. If you're doing them and they help....great. But have a realistic expectation as to what impact they will on your problem.
 
The way I see it, kegels are just one of several options used in treating incontinence. I don't have the impression it's a matter of "do kegels and nothing else and your incontinence is history." It isn't the end-all and be-all, but can help if used judiciously.
 
My view on kegels is that it's free and can't hurt. So automatically worth trying.

Personally, after doing them religiously for a few months I saw 0% improvement on my issues. I have OAB and I don't think it's possible to make my pelvic floor muscles strong enough to counteract the extreme contractions of my bladder wall muscles.

I think they're really more for people with stress incontinence than urge incontinence.
 
My incontinence is the result of a surgical mishap followed by a life-threatening infection when I was 14 years old (in 1956). When I got out of the hospital after three months, I was totally urinary incontinent and had to wear a diaper with plastic pants 24/7. Having to wear a diaper to high school was a horrible experience! My urologist at the time recommended that I do what are nowadays called Kegel exercises on a daily basis, and I was a fanatic about doing them. Probably as a result, my incontinence improved to the point that, so long as I was near a bathroom and cold use it quickly went necessary, I was generally able to go without a daytime diaper. However, reliable nighttime incontinence never returned. So, to answer the initial poster’s question, Kegel exercises did not help bedwetting for me.
 
Snow, I due agree with you to an extent, that PT is oversold as a cure. The biggest problem are there are too many know it all quacks practicing. I had a jerk tear a tendon in my neck, another almost paralyzed me showing another Therapist how to stretch my neck. I had to palm heel strike him in the lower extremities to get him to release my neck before I passed out! He did pass out, then was fired for not listening to ME the patient! It turned out nobody at the entire facility was qualified to do the treatment prescibed, so a few managers got the boot as well... I now walk, and am getting the use of my arm back due to the efforts of GREAT Physical Therapists, but I have only found them as part of larger hospitals & teaching hospitals. Not these Degree in a year places. A lot of the independent places are filled with under qualified folks that didn’t make the cut. I just wonder how many lives these idiots ruined going elsewhere to practice? My advice is BE CAREFUL! The same surgeon who left half of my C-3 vertebrae on the table set up my therapy with the guy I knocked out!
 
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