Bladder problems keep women out of sports

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A weak bladder keeps many women from taking part in recreational sports, according to an Italian study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

In a survey of 679 Italian young and middle-aged women, researchers found that 1 in 7 (15 percent) were bothered by urinary stress incontinence -- that is, small urine leaks when the bladder is under pressure, such as from exercise, coughing, or laughing. On average, these women had suffered with the problem for 6 years.

Being overweight and having had children boosted the likelihood of having urinary stress incontinence, Dr. Stefano Salvatore from University of Insubria, Del Ponte Hospital, Varese, and colleagues found.

Of those affected, nearly half said the condition occurred during routine activities, while nearly a third said they leaked urine only during sports activities.

One in 10 women said the problem led them to give up their favorite sport, while one in five women said they limited the way they engaged in the sport in a bid to reduce leakage episodes.

Sports with repetitive bouncing, such as basketball, tennis and squash, were associated with the highest incidence of incontinence episodes in affected women.

This study, the researchers say, shows that urinary incontinence, even when mild, can have a harmful impact on the quality of women's lives by limiting their participation in healthy-promoting physical activity. Despite this, few women seek help.

Women "should be given information and offered diagnostic and conservative therapeutic options," including pelvic floor exercises, which have proven to be very effective in alleviating urinary incontinence, Salvatore and colleagues conclude. "Unfortunately," they add, pelvic floor exercises were practiced by less than 5 percent of women with urinary incontinence in this study.

SOURCE: British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008.