Urinary incontinence occurs when the muscles in the bladder don’t work properly to keep urine from leaking out before you’re ready to go to the bathroom.
There are two main types of urinary incontinence: urge incontinence (loss of bladder control) and stress incontinence (leakage due to physical exertion).
The involuntary urine that follows an unexpected and strong need to urinate is known as urge incontinence. This is something that occurs frequently, even in the wee hours of the night.
Stress incontinence is urinary incontinence that occurs when the bladder experiences pressure/stress due to activities like coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercising.
Other forms of urinary incontinence include functional incontinence, overflow incontinence, and mixed incontinence. Incontinence caused by overflow is a condition in which the bladder does not empty completely.
People with certain mental or physical disabilities are more likely to experience functional incontinence, which causes them to urinate before they reach the toilet, and mixed incontinence, which affects people who experience more than one of the aforementioned types of incontinence.