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Women's Health Newsletter

Bladder Training

Once you have diagnosed with bladder spasms (also known as "Overactive bladder"), you will usually be started on a  medication & bladder training. If you don't get this problem treated, it will usually get worse. It will take up to 6 weeks to see if this treatment will help reduce your symptoms of having to go to the bathroom all the time & getting up to void at night.  

The goal of this treatment plan is teach your bladder to hold more urine before having spasms and giving you the urge to empty your bladder. We will accomplish this by gradually increasing the time between your voids.  Our goals are to help you get to your desired voiding interval, reduce the number of times which you have to get up at night to empty your bladder,  and to decrease any accidental loss of urine which you may be having. This treatment can often allow you to reduce or eliminate the medications which you may be taking for bladder control!

INSTRUCTIONS    

1.  You and your doctor or nurse will determine your voiding schedule for the week, usually between an hour & an hour & a half

 2. Begin your schedule every morning when you get up and continue the schedule until you go to bed.  No voiding goals are scheduled for your sleeping hours.

 3.  If you have the urge to empty your bladder before your scheduled time, make every effort to wait until your goal.  Try to relax and suppress the urge.

 4.  If you have to interrupt your schedule because you can not wait, get back on schedule by voiding at the scheduled time even if it has been only a few minutes.

5.  Try to empty your bladder according to your schedule as much as possible, even if you do not feel like you have to go.  If you skip a void return to your schedule as soon as possible.

 6.  You should try to increase your voiding interval by 15 to 30 minutes each week if possible.  Don't get frustrated if you don't reach your goal immediately, most women will achieve their desired goal in 4 to 8 weeks.   

Note: You may find it helpful to avoid some substances which may irritate your bladder such as coffee, tea, and soda pop which contains caffeine.  You also should not force yourself to drink more or less fluids than you need- just drink enough to satisfy your thirst.

Thank you for helping us with your treatment- we know that this is a lot of work; but the end result is worth it.

FOLLOW-UP

Once you have had bladder testing, the good news is that you will not usually need to have it done again & your follow-up will be by telephone. 

You will be asked to report how you are doing with your treatment in terms of how often you are using the bathroom during the day & the night & how often you are losing urine.

Depending on how you are doing, we may change you medications. Sometimes you can reduce your dose, just use the medicines when you are going out for a while, or even get off the medications completely.

                                                                            Good Luck!