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A 2014 report from the Centers for Disease Control entitled “Prevalence of Incontinence Among Older Americans,” detailed some surprising statistics. However, the report used a data set that made it impossible to supply any sort of averages because the data was sourced from:

Urinary incontinence ranks as one of the most under-reported symptoms among both men and women alike. This is due to a few basic misunderstandings:

Did you know that urinary incontinence is one of the most under-reported medical issues? This is for several very different reasons:

If you live with urinary incontinence, you should not resign yourself to it as a fact of life or sign of aging. While all people experiencing urinary incontinence experience it as a lack of bladder control resulting in some level of urinary leakage, it is usually a symptom of something else. In other words, it is a symptom of a larger condition.

Maybe you provide care to a loved one or patient struggling with urine leakage? Do they say that it is very embarrassing, distressing, or uncontrollable? These are very commonly used adjectives when patients discuss their urinary incontinence.

It might be surprising to learn that 51% of women, overall, live with urinary incontinence. And though the numbers increase with age (a recent study determined it occurred at “13% in young, nulligravid women to 25% in reproductive-age, 47% in middle-age, 55% in postmenopausal, and 75% in older women“), it was around double the rate experienced by men.

From U.S.News & World Report: 

When there is anything going on with the bladder, it can be difficult to determine just what the problem might be, and it is because so many issues involve identical symptoms. As an example, those with overactive bladders may find that they can “no longer hold urine normally…[and] often feel a sudden urge to urinate or experience an accident.”

Incontinence is the inability to completely control the bladder or bowels. Any type of incontinence will occur by degrees from mild to severe and will have an array of causes. Urinary incontinence, though most common among women, occurs in men and manifests in different ways, as well. The National Association for Continence indicates that in the U.S. alone there are more than 20 million people dealing with some sort of incontinence, and this explains the huge array of incontinence products available.

Biofreeze® topical analgesic reduces pain through “cryotherapy,” or cold application. It has been well-established that cold reduces the sensation of pain and reduces inflammation. (For a comprehensive text on cryotherapy, see Knight). “Cryokinetics” is a technique of using cold application to reduce pain during exercise. This helps facilitate earlier exercise interventions for healing tissue. Cooling and re-warming tissue with movement stimulates reperfusion of healing tissue.