Women's Health and Incontinence

Women often think urinary incontinence is just part of the natural aging process, but women of any age can experience an involuntary leakage of urine. This condition isn’t something you just have to live with. At our Incontinence Program for Women, we offer many treatment options to help you address the underlying causes of urinary incontinence. 

Department of Rehabilitation Services, Newton-Wellesley Ambulatory Care Center - Newton
159 Wells Avenue
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617-243-6172 
Fax: 617-243-6651

Our Services

Your treatment starts with a thorough evaluation of your condition, along with a detailed history of your symptoms. Incontinence may involve weakness of the muscles of your pelvic floor, so we use a technique called biofeedback to give you information about your muscles’ activity so you can better control these muscles.

Our six- to eight-week physical therapy program involves strengthening your pelvic floor muscles and measuring your progress with biofeedback data. In addition, we may use bladder retraining techniques to help you:

• Hold more urine in your bladder
• Increase the time between trips to the bathroom
• Lessen the urgent need to urinate

Types of Urinary Incontinence We Treat

There are two main forms of urinary incontinence we treat: stress incontinence and urge incontinence.

Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine due to physical movements or activities that put stress on your bladder. These movements can include:

• Coughing
• Exercising
• Laughing
• Jumping
• Lifting heavy objects
• Sneezing
• Standing

Physical therapy for stress incontinence involves strengthening your pelvic floor muscles through a personalized exercise program, which may include:

• Biofeedback
• Electrical stimulation
• Vaginal weights

In addition, we’ll help you learn how to avoid the stresses that increase pressure on your bladder and contribute to stress incontinence.

Urge Incontinence

Urge incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine that occurs whenever you feel the urge to urinate. By using behavioral techniques, our physical therapy team can help retrain your bladder to hold larger amounts of urine for longer periods of time. This retraining process can also lessen the sense of urgency that can trigger involuntary urine leakage or release.

Request information  

For more information, please call 617-243-6172