Female bladder problems

Women of any age can develop bladder problems. Women who have just had a baby often run the risk of developing a bladder problem. This is often referred to as stress incontinence. After childbirth your pelvic floor muscles may be weakened or even damaged, which can lead to insufficient recognition of bladder capacity. Exercises can certainly help here, but it may be that catheterisation is temporarily necessary.

Frequent symptoms

Aside from childbirth-related symptoms, approximately one in three women over the age of 40 will have bladder problems. These problems can manifest themselves as symptoms such pain when urinating, frequent urination, needing to urinate during the night and the involuntary loss of urine.

A bladder infection, an overactive bladder or loose pelvic floor muscles are often found to be the cause. An overactive bladder means that your bladder muscle contracts before your bladder is completely full. This leads to an irresistible urge to urinate. This means that you will often need to urinate more that the average 4 or 5 times a day. Nerve impairment in the bladder, for example as a result of multiple sclerosis, diabetes or chronic bladder infections are potential causes of this.

Is a catheter the right solution for me?

It’s important that you don’t ignore your symptoms and speak to a specialist about them. There are almost certainly treatments that will help alleviate your symptoms and reduce discomfort. It may be that your doctor will recommend catheterisation. What type of catheter is best suited to you is something that your doctor will discuss with you.

Female catheters

Curan has developed a number of catheters specifically for women. A female urethra is shorter than a male one. The Curan range includes the Curan Lady, the Curan Advantage Lady, the Curan Advantage Unisex, the Curan Hydrophilic Coated Catheter and the Curan Closed System with integrated urine collection bag.

Together with your specialist you will be able to select the catheter that most suits your body, your diagnosis, your lifestyle, your wishes and your needs. Your specialist will also teach you how to self-catheterise. Let us tell you more about it.