If Karen's story seems unreal, it may be surprising to learn that one in two women struggle with the same issue, and one in six make extreme modifications in their daily lifestyles, and suffer in silence because too few people will speak up and speak out about urinary incontinence.

In fact, Karens lifestyle modifications -- although they seem extreme -- are common and typical of women who suffer with incontinence, according to a group of nurses and doctors who described the affliction and its possible treatments at a National Institutes of Health-sponsored conference on bladder control.

Incontinent women pass up good promotions at work. They break off relationships as soon as they start to get intimate. They select clothes and accessories based on their ability to quickly disrobe when the urge to urinate strikes.

The bad news is that like Karen, women who are afflicted with incontinence typically wait three-and-a-half years after the first incident before they seek help.

The good news? Urinary incontinence is both treatable and curable. So why does continence remain a taboo among both health care providers and patients?

Simply put, urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine. Millions upon million Americans suffer from this condition. Although urinary incontinence is extremely common in elderly women, it's not an inevitable part of aging. Incontinence is no respecter of age, race or lifestyle.

In fact, nearly one out of every two women will struggle with bouts of incontinence between the ages of 45 (the most common age of onset) and 64. (Utian, et al., 1995).

The incontinence occurs when the weight of the bladder causes it to sag into the weakened vaginal muscle, thus changing the angle of the bladder, the bladder neck and the urethra (the canal through which urine flows out of the body) adversely effecting the integrity of the bladder neck "seal" under the stress of lifting, running, sneezing, coughing, dancing, laughing, exercising or with the "urge" created by a filling bladder.

Compounding the issue is the fact that many women who consult their health care providers about their incontinence may or may not find them willing to openly discuss the issue, or have an adequate range of knowledge of treatment and cure options available (Bladder Health Council, 1995; Jeter, 1990).

Urinary incontinence exerts a significant psychosocial and economic impact on both women and their families. Incontinent women may lose self esteem and avoid physical and social activities. As incontinence increases, life revolves around coping with the problem on a daily basis, diminishing their ability to maintain an independent lifestyle (AHCPR, 1996).

Incontinence extracts a significant toll, with demonstrable medical costs of caring for persons with incontinence at $23.4 billion annually (Hu, et al., 1997). Costs are further increased by individuals who purchase absorbent products (ranging from 50 cents to $1 per pad) to manage their problem. It's estimated that elderly women spend an average of $1,000 a year on such products (Bladder Health Council, 1995). It's time to break the silence on incontinence.

Women Need to Know. . .

Kegel didn't do squeezes, he did biofeedback.

Dr. Arnold Kegel proved in the 1940's that properly exercising the pubococcygeal muscle would cure 93% of women with incontinence.

He developed a detailed protocol revolving around the use of his "Perineometer" (the world's 1st biofeedback device, 20 years before the word biofeedback would be coined!)

When the device was not employed the success rate of the squeezes dropped to under 5%. One of the chief reasons was women quit doing them. Without feedback conventional kegels are slow and boring. If the wrong muscles are utilitized in attempting to do kegels, the incontinence can actually get worse.

Telling women to "do your kegels" is a fraud and a disservice, whose end result is to perpetuate the incontinence industry and the pursuant misery.

Women Need to Know. . .about the Kegelmaster®...

The World's 1st True Progressive Resistance Vaginal Exerciser...

A leading luminary in the field of incontinence assessed the Kegelmaster as follows:

• The Kegelmaster is similar in principle to the dynamometer used in physical therapy to exercise the hand grip.
• I think it is the easiest, most versatile and most accessible exercise device available today for vaginal and pelvic floor exercises.
• The best of all, the Kegelmaster isolates the muscles that need to be exercised.
• The primary benefit of the Kegelmaster device is that it stretches the vaginal/pelvic floor muscles after every contraction, thus exercising them from the full stretch to the full contraction-the best way to exercise the muscle tissue.
• I have not found a simpler and more user-friendly device.
• I believe that all women can substantially benefit from using it, particularly those that have stress or urge urinary incontinence.

The sexual advantages resulting from using the Kegelmaster even once are off the charts, including a tighter vagina and stronger orgasms.

Women who have experienced vaginal childbirth will realize the quickest most dramatic improvement.

It is never too late or too early to enjoy all of the benefits of stronger, more toned pubococcygeal muscles.