Girl Problems: Your Guide to Pelvic Floor Health Mary M South

Overactive Bladder is a combination of symptoms, including urinary frequency, urgency, and urinary urge incontinence. Bladder function involves the coordination of the brain and muscles through our nerve signals. With an overactive bladder, regardless of what our brain wants our bladder to do, our bladder has a mind of its own and contracts at inopportune times. Medtronic Bladder Control Therapy delivered by the InterStim™ systems uses gentle nerve stimulation to correct the bladder-brain communication pathway and restore bladder function. This therapy provides relief and restores bladder function by gently stimulating the sacral nerves. In this episode, Dr. South explains why, where, and how the device is placed and what it can do to help control your bladder.

Urinary tract infections affect women of all ages and all stages of life. We see UTIs in young, healthy women both sexually active and not and in older, postmenopausal women. The evaluation and treatment of UTI cost more than 2 billion dollars a year in the United States. Women who experience recurrent UTI find this condition very distressing.  Dr. South discusses the diagnosis and treatment of recurrent urinary tract in this episode of Girl Problems. 

In this episode of Girl Problems, Dr. South discusses a form of bladder leakage called stress urinary incontinence. Female stress incontinence is very common and can affect women of all ages. The symptoms include uncontrolled bladder leakage with cough, laugh, sneeze, and other activities that create pressure on the bladder.  You will learn about how stress incontinence is diagnosed, hear real women talk about their symptoms, and learn about treatment options. 

In your body, certain chemicals travel from nerve cells to muscle cells to make your bladder contract so that you can urinate. For people who have OAB, these muscles contract uncontrollably, creating leakage, the sudden strong need to go, and going too often. BOTOX® is placed directly in the bladder muscle, helping block the nerve signals that trigger OAB.  In this episode, Dr. South discusses the use of BOTOX® for the treatment of OAB.  You will hear her patients talk about their experience with this treatment option. 

In this episode, Dr. South discusses the use of C02 laser therapy for the treatment of vulvovaginal atrophy. Atrophy is the thinning of the walls of the vulva, vagina, bladder, and urethra due to the decreasing levels of estrogen with menopause.  Genitourinary syndrome of menopause, or GSM,  is an all-encompassing term used to describe all the symptoms associated with atrophy. During this podcast, Dr. South discusses the symptoms, diagnosis, and specifically the use of CO2 laser therapy for the treatment of this condition.

In recognition of National Bladder Health Awareness month, this episode discusses Overactive Bladder.  Dr. South discusses the definition of OAB, the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options available to women.  You will hear directly from her patients how this condition makes them feel and how OAB affects their lives.  Musical Credit: "Cheery Monday" by Kevin MacLeod (2017)