Ye old bladder

[nohorn]

I have a question, from anyone who has knowledge of urinary tract (squad?).....what does the human bladder look like in an elderly person............the reason I ask is that elderly women often have leakage, why?

For women is it because they have little or not enough estrogen, which could affect the flexibility of the bladder ? Or is it more because you have neglected it because you let it get overextended when you let it get too full before peeing-- If this bad habit /pattern is repeated over many months or years, for example.

Can you reverse the bladder damages as outlined above if you are elderly? Or are young? Can you retrain you bladder and improve its structure?

What about male leekage problems, what is the male poroblem.

I appolgize for asking such a complex problem but I am interested in other opinions. And anything that has helped males/females.
nohorn

[Sqad]

nohorn...a huge question which I will try and address later on as I am now preparing to go to hospital for some routine blood tests........the labs open early here.
See you later unless your question has been adequately answered.

[Hopkirk]

If you Google incontinence you will get loads of links for explanations.

Here is one of them

http://www.nhs.uk/Con...ges/Introduction.aspx

[Sqad]

I haven´t opened the link given by Hopkirk, but here is my version of events based on your question and with the caveat that it is a very complicated subject of which many books have been written.

Go into your butcher´s shop and ask to see a pig´s bladder and that is what a normal human bladder looks like both male and female.

Hormones play little or no part in human bladder function.

There are nerves which send messages to the brain when the bladder is full and there are nerves which send messages back to muscles and valves around the bladder instructing them of a full bladder. Any interruption or indeed disorders of the nerves going either to or from the brain will result in bladder incontinence and any disorder in the muscles of the stomach, bladder or valves may result in leakage.

Here lies the difference between men and women....CHILDBIRTH...........so often, there is weakness of the pelvic muscles and of the bladder valves, weakened by each joyous event of childbirth and this, in later years may lead to incontinence. This cannot be easily reversed, but pelvic exercises and electrical stimulation or possible operation MAY help.

In the elderly, particularly in women, these defects are compounded by degeneration of the nerves going backwards and forwards to the brain and the brain itself not functioning satisfactorily leading to incontinence.

The elderly male leaks for the same reason as the female due to degeneration of the above mentioned nerves, but also the Prostate Gland situated around the base of the male bladder my become enlarged and cause incontinence.

This gives you the basics, but open the link given by Hopkirk and i am certain that it will give you the innumerable disorders that can befall the human function of "passing water"

Any queries then get back to us.

[Sqad]

Just opened Hopkirk´,s link.............probably better than my answer :-(

[nohorn]

Thank you, hopkirk and squad........It is such a complicated topic. I will do the webpage as suggested. What you described is very helpful. If I have further questions, I will get back to you.

[woofgang]

to add to sqad's comments, the "overextended before peeing" thing is totally the wrong way around. The bladder's structure is muscular. Pee runs in, the bladder senses this and relaxes to allow the urine to be stored at the same time sending a signal to the brain. The first few times this happens, the adult human can ignore the signal and the bladder relaxes and stores the urine quietly. As the bladder fills, it will go through the signal/ relax cycle getting closer to its total volume. The signals will get more urgent until the we go to pee, the bladder contracts again and the whole thing starts again. if the bladder remains unstretched for a while, it will (usually temporarily) lose its ability to stretch so far without contracting and this is known as bladder instability. The commonest non disease causes are being catheterised for a while or getting into the habit of "going in case you need to" In either case, assuming that the nerves and muscles are undamaged, the bladder can be retrained by simply leaving increasingly long gaps between pees.

[woofgang]

for ladies, google pelvic floor or kegel exercises