Fact or Fiction: The Truth About OAB
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With an overactive bladder, knowledge is your best weapon. But separating fact from fiction can be a challenge. I'm Joy Behar. And I'm talking to an expert on OAB about getting to the truth
I don't want to call it an illness. It's not an illness. What is it
Because I hate to call it a disease or anything that sound terrible. I mean think one myth is that many women think they just have to live with it. And that they can't help it. And it's not so much that you can fix it completely, necessarily. But there are a lot of either training that you can do yourself or medications you can try. Another myth is that women think that they are the only ones with it they often will come in saying I have something really embarrassing to say. And I think, oh my gosh, this is going to be something unusual. And they tell me about overactive bladder symptoms, which are incredibly common. And a third, and actually kind of important myth, is that if you feel like you need to go-- if you start taking cranberries, or cranberry juice, that it will help it. The problem with that-- while it's true that will help with bladder infection--
The problem is sometimes it's not infection. It's overactive bladder. And it will actually hurt the overactive bladder.
doctor, is that once you have a kid, you are not in the same shape that you were before that.
I tell my patients all the time there's no perfect way to have a baby. And there's pros and cons to delivering vaginally and by c-section. When you've had a vaginal delivery, it definitely damages your vagina to a degree and not always in a way that's going to affect you forever. But it can lead to stress incontinence. If you just carry the baby regardless of what type of delivery you have, that can lead to urge incontinence because it can pressure on your bladder and damage the nerves.
And they think, god, if I have to go to the bathroom. And I'm having sex, It's going to be embarrassing.
and what if I pee in the middle of it? So I think it impacted a lot by OAB. The way it can affect OAB is that sometimes when you have sex, you either get a little bit of a bladder infection. Or you even just a little bit of inflammation of your urethra-- the little hole that you pee out of. And that can just increase the symptoms of irritation. But sex itself is not the reason for OAB. People who have never had sex still can have symptoms of OAB.
Today you're common. You're like everyone else. And that's a good thing. You want your symptoms to be a common thing and not something that your doctor has never really heard about. And this is common. Everybody gets it at some point in their life for a little bit of time at least.
I don't want to call it an illness. It's not an illness. What is it
Because I hate to call it a disease or anything that sound terrible. I mean think one myth is that many women think they just have to live with it. And that they can't help it. And it's not so much that you can fix it completely, necessarily. But there are a lot of either training that you can do yourself or medications you can try. Another myth is that women think that they are the only ones with it they often will come in saying I have something really embarrassing to say. And I think, oh my gosh, this is going to be something unusual. And they tell me about overactive bladder symptoms, which are incredibly common. And a third, and actually kind of important myth, is that if you feel like you need to go-- if you start taking cranberries, or cranberry juice, that it will help it. The problem with that-- while it's true that will help with bladder infection--
The problem is sometimes it's not infection. It's overactive bladder. And it will actually hurt the overactive bladder.
doctor, is that once you have a kid, you are not in the same shape that you were before that.
I tell my patients all the time there's no perfect way to have a baby. And there's pros and cons to delivering vaginally and by c-section. When you've had a vaginal delivery, it definitely damages your vagina to a degree and not always in a way that's going to affect you forever. But it can lead to stress incontinence. If you just carry the baby regardless of what type of delivery you have, that can lead to urge incontinence because it can pressure on your bladder and damage the nerves.
And they think, god, if I have to go to the bathroom. And I'm having sex, It's going to be embarrassing.
and what if I pee in the middle of it? So I think it impacted a lot by OAB. The way it can affect OAB is that sometimes when you have sex, you either get a little bit of a bladder infection. Or you even just a little bit of inflammation of your urethra-- the little hole that you pee out of. And that can just increase the symptoms of irritation. But sex itself is not the reason for OAB. People who have never had sex still can have symptoms of OAB.
Today you're common. You're like everyone else. And that's a good thing. You want your symptoms to be a common thing and not something that your doctor has never really heard about. And this is common. Everybody gets it at some point in their life for a little bit of time at least.