What results can I expect and when?
👩⚕️ In research studies, about 2/3 of women with the urge or other incontinence symptoms, who perform regular pelvic floor muscle training, experience an improvement in leak symptoms.
About 35% of women stop leaks entirely. Women also reported less daily leaks and improved quality of life.
While some women start to notice less leak symptoms in a matter of weeks, for others it can take between 3-6 months of regular training to see results. Keep at it! Consistency is key!!
What factors may influence my individual results?
Training frequency: regular training (sticking to your 5 to 10-minute session, 5 times a week) is linked with faster improvements. Keep training sessions short and sweet and respect rest time! Overdoing it won't make you progress any faster, and could actually slow down your progress.
Kegel quality: making sure you are correctly engaging your pelvic floor muscles is key. Don't hesitate to practice with the kegel coach (linked) and pay attention to Contraction Quality during games.
Breaking old habits and creating new mental associations: do you get a sudden urge to pee as soon as you put your key in the door? Do you use the toilet every hour, even without an urge to pee, "just in case"? If you repeat these behaviors often enough, your brain may start to associate these moments with having to pee, even if you don't really have to go. Try breaking the cycle by changing your routine: for example; by adding a distracting task (such as mental math) while you get your keys out to open your door, or by gradually spacing out planned trips to the bathroom.
Other factors: If you are under age 50, and despite pelvic floor muscle training you are not seeing any symptom relief, factors like recurrent urinary tract infections, or cysts or fibroids that are pressing on the bladder, can also contribute to urge incontinence. With age and menopause, urge incontinence can appear without any real reason, and may be helped with medication. If you have been training regularly, have seen improvements in your strength and endurance, and have seen no improvement in leak symptoms, you can use your training data as valuable information to share with your medical professional.