[Urinary incontinence in men and women. Diagnostics and conservative therapy]

Urinary incontinence can affect men and women to the same degree. A differentiation is made between stress incontinence (i.e. urine discharge as a result of physical activities, sneezing or coughing), urge incontinence (i.e. strong urge to void with involuntary discharge of urine), mixed urinary incontinence and special forms. While men and women share the pathophysiology of urge-associated urinary incontinence, the multifactorial female urinary stress incontinence is in contrast to the stress incontinence in men which is almost exclusively caused by prostatectomy (postprostatectomy). The basic diagnostic procedure for urinary incontinence is largely non-invasive. Special diagnostic procedures are reserved for recurrences and preparation for operative measures. Therapy is oriented to the degree of suffering and patient compliance and incorporates conservative measures as first line therapy (e.g. lifestyle changes, bladder and continence training). Duloxetin is approved for the medicinal therapy of female urinary stress incontinence. The treatment of urge-associated urinary incontinence is primarily with anticholinergic agents. Alternatively, procedures for neuromodulation, a beta mimetic or injection therapy with botulinum toxin can be used in the future.