Bladder Rehabilitation

Pelvic floor muscle exercises can help both men and women gain more control over their bladder and bowel problems.

A separate rehabilitation technique is bladder retraining, which helps people to begin to hold more urine for longer periods of time.

Pelvic floor exercises (Kegel exercises)

The pelvic floor is made up of layers of muscle stretching like a hammock from the pubic bone at the front, to the coccyx at the back. They are designed to support the body openings of the anus (back passage), the urethra (bladder outlet) in males and the vagina (birth canal) in females. If not exercised it may weaken. The muscles may also weaken through a long history of constipation, surgery to the pelvic area or childbirth.

Our leaflet is designed to assist you in helping yourself, at any age, whether you are male or female:

Bladder retraining

It is possible to train the bladder to hold more urine for longer periods by gradually increasing the time between each visit to the toilet. This may take some time and a lot of determination as to be successful means ignoring the urge to visit the toilet to pass urine. If successful, the person can be in control of their bladder not the bladder in control of the person.