Always launches stress incontinence products

Wandering around Müller Drogerie last night, I noticed a new product launch from Procter & Gamble's wildly popular Always range: Envive. Point-of-sale posters are going up and it probably will take many people a little time to work out what this product is for. The delicate term used is for the "sensible Blase" (sensitive bladder). Yes, you've guessed it: it's stress incontinence pads, aka Tena Lady.

Now what is stress incontinence?
It's reckoned that about 25% of all women leak a little urine when then laugh, sneeze or move in certain ways.
While it is mainly an issue for older women, younger ladies who have had a "natural" (vaginal) birth or are significantly overweight can also have this problem (although post-menopause, there's no significant difference in frequency between women who have given birth by any method and those who have not).

It mostly has got to do with your pelvic floor muscles being fit. They are the muscles you can feel if you sit on your hand and pull your vagina upwards as if you are dying to go to the toilet and trying to hold it in. If they are damaged in some way or a little loose due to pregnancy, too much weight, etc. you might not have 100% control over holding your bladder.
There are treatments ranging from electrical-stimulation therapy, biofeedback, surgery or the good old-fashioned Kegels, but in the mean time products such as Envive can help.

Stress incontinence can be embarassing and can really hit someone's self-esteem. I can remember handing out pads on prescription when I worked at a pharmacy, people were positively ashamed to have this condition and items would be double and triple-bagged so no-one could see what was being collected.
So having a brand like Always go into this market is great news if it encourages women a little and also gives back some quality of life, especially as the products aren't just available in pharmacies.

Look she's saying praise Jebus in fact.
And it's good for P&G as it stretches their market, obviously. Click on the Envive site for a free sample.

When I read the original title, I thought you wanted somebody to launch incontinence products all the time.

"launch stress" is what the developer's of Vista experienced quite a lot of. I thought this was a product for software employees!

There was a particularly gory article in the Guardian recently that asked why mothers that are obs and gynae medical professionals have a much higher rate of C section (than vagical delivery) than the overlal population of mothers. For most of them, the probability of "reduced continence" in later life was a key reason.

It also interviewed (male) consultants who said that they despair of seeing hundreds of older female patients a year who have serious problems with bladder etc resulting from vaginal childbirth decades earlier.

To make your list more complete, women can also have stress incontinence when they have an orgasm. But of course, you certainly won't need the product then.

As if you give a shit then?

But in any case, doing pelvic floor exercises can help relieve or even prevent such issues.

To make the list even more complete, psychological stress can cause this problem, too, especially fear or being extremely unhappy with your partner.

I'd hope not!

Or people could just use cloth pads. So much easier and cheaper. And if you are really embarrassed about it you can just make your own at home and no-one need ever know.

Drinking coffee, tea, and alcohol can be an irritant to the bladder of some women and predispose them to having bladder incontinence.

Intensive and prolonged love-making would sort this problem. Orgasms tones up the pubococcygeus muscle a treat

Though I don't know anything about childbirth and maybe chronic incontinence is just par for the course, I have sometimes wondered to what extent the problems women suffer after it are due to cack-handed medical staff* or being required to give birth at a time that's more convenient for the medical staff than for them. If so many women have that problem, you'd also wonder what sort of follow-up care or reconstructive surgery they were getting. Why should they be expected to put up with it? I do have the impression that, because women are the ones that give birth and their reproductive organs are mostly hidden, there seems to be an assumption that they are somehow more resilient and will withstand anything. I really can't imagine men being expected to undergo regular examinations that could leave them bleeding and in pain and being told that everything would just heal of its own accord and pop back into shape. With men, there seems to be a far greater awareness that it's a delicate area.

(* If there are nurses who "can't find a vein" and use you like a pincushion when you give blood, sometimes leaving you bruised, and others who can find one straight away and leave you with nothing but a tiny pin-prick, I'd assume there were also similar ranges of competence in much more critical situations like childbirth.)

We do have a tendency to blame health care practitioners for adverse outcomes. However, I would suggest women become more consumer savvy by taking more responsibility for their own health care. This includes considering their options;getting appropriate follow-up; not putting blind faith and trust in their health care providers; doing independent research on their own to become aware of possible adverse outcomes; asking appropriate questions; being an active participant in the decisions made about their health; and lastly not feeling like they have to live with certain conditions that's impacting their health and well-being by seeking consultation. Here's a couple of articles about the problem of stress incontinence.

Because stress incontinence is so prevalent, perhaps it does have something to do with the process of just how women are giving birth. Then Proctor and Gamble and other consumer product companies come along to capitalize on this significant and life-altering problem that some women are faced with.

http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-...-Women-13203-1/

"The study of 4,000 women (80 percent had given birth) found that 25 percent suffered from anal incontinence, 15 percent from stress urinary incontinence, 13 percent from overactive bladder, and 6 percent from dropped pelvic organs (pelvic organ prolapse). the women in the study were aged 25 to 84. The findings were published in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology."

http://www.birthofafamily.com/Articles/activity/why_kegel_pp

Indeed - but it's also the chicken and the egg scenario: do your exercises and you'll reach nirvana more easily, more nirvana and you're doing your exercises.
As easy a habit as cleaning your teeth.

Some also find Pilates can help due to the control of the "powerhouse".

I'm also more than happy to help any ladies train this muscle

Nah, no thanks, I have my own very special pubococcygeus muscle trainer.

You do, from my experience very noble and dedicated midwives a great misservice.

What a load of poppy cock, as is the rest of your if I may say so whinning men-are-all-to-blame post. Just how can a midwife cause bladder damadge at birth due to negligence? Have you ever talked to one, let alone been involved in a birth or two? Do you actulay know what the priority is during a birth? The mother? The child? The possibility that with time and age someone might need a panty liner?

Reconstructive surgery? How about avoidance therapy! Keeping physicaly fit for the day, excercising the muscle sets used and needed, even expanding the vagina during pregnancy with an inflatable baloon to reduce the possibility of tears and that cut.

As to the health service hates women angle. Why is more money spent on the less fatal female breast cancer than the greater killer prostrate? In fact where are the awareness campaigns for testicular cancer?

_{Jovial Disclaimer: I know I'm not allowed to comment on birth as I'm a bloke, and like fat it's a women's issue...}

If my post was targetting midwives, criticising the health service for being anti-female and saying men were to blame, then surely most midwives would have to be male. You've read things into the post that I hadn't even thought of!

This topic looks interesting. Thought I would have a wee read

I was actually having a conversation on this topic with a specialist in uro-gynecology last month. She stated that there is no conclusive evidence one way or another as regards the correlation of vaginal birth and stress (peeing with laughing, coughing) and urge (can't make it to the bathroom...gotta go right away) incontinence.

Though common sense would make me believe that giving pitocin to induce labor and causing such forceful contractions, may be an issue.

The morbidity and mortality rate with C-sec is significantly higher than with natural birth. I would hate to see women avoiding it due to a not conclusive correlation. That said, even if there were a corelation, I would still opt for vaginal birth.