Stress incontinence treatment at Penn Medicine
Your treatment depends on the severity of your stress incontinence and personal preferences. Treatments may include:
Pelvic floor exercises and training can help you gain stronger muscles to help control bladder leakage. After learning these techniques in our clinic, you can do the exercises at home.
Our highly trained therapists teach you exercises that support your bladder and urethra. Your therapy may include Kegel exercise training and using devices that help you identify your pelvic floor muscles.
Your provider may use a needle to inject certain medical materials, such as collagen, around the urethra. This can help prevent pressure on the urethra and urine leaks.
You insert a customized, ring-like device into the vagina. The device supports your pelvic floor muscles and takes pressure off the urethra.
Our specialists have years of training and experience in minimally invasive stress incontinence surgery. Our advanced techniques use smaller incisions, so you have a faster, easier recovery and fewer complications.
Stress incontinence surgeries include:
- Sling procedures: These procedures use your tissue, donor tissue, or synthetic material to create a sling or hammock in the pelvis. These materials lift the pelvic organs and support the urethra. We perform this procedure using robotic techniques for enhanced precision and so we can use tiny incisions.
- Artificial urinary sphincter: Doctors place a sphincter (cuff) around the urethra that acts like a valve. The cuff stays closed until you open it with a special pump. Our urological surgeons are among the few in the U.S. who perform this specialized surgery.