As a keen walker, enjoying regular holidays in the Lake District, I soon decided that stress incontinence wasn’t something I was prepared to put up with. I’d tried pelvic floor exercises and specialist physiotherapy, but neither seemed to make much difference. I was able to wear pads in the short term but increasingly, I found them uncomfortable and inconvenient. I was becoming rather fed up with my outings and holidays constantly being interrupted by having to locate a loo!
The Bulkamid procedure is ‘non-invasive’ and only took around 15 minutes. I was back doing all my normal activities the next day, which seems incredible given the usual 6 week recovery time from traditional surgery.
From that day onwards I didn’t need to wear pads again and those embarrassing leaks when coughing, sneezing and walking up hills were a thing of the past. It’s made such a difference to my life.
The procedure was very simple. I was completely dry within a day or two, and returned to work the next day, carrying on with life as normal
Over the past few years, I’d really got into going to the gym, particularly working with weights but increasingly my bladder issues – and those embarrassing leaks – were really starting to impact on what I could comfortably do.
Lifting heavier weights was becoming impossible – let alone more energetic forms of exercise such as jumping and skipping – so I decided enough was enough and I wanted to do something about it. I wasn’t prepared to give up my love of fitness and going to the gym regularly – nor did I want to be constantly worrying about wearing incontinence pads.
So, I booked an appointment with my GP and requested a referral for further investigation. The procedure was a little uncomfortable and stung a bit (when the local anaesthetic was applied) but it was all over in 15 mins and I was able to go home shortly after. In fact, I was back at the gym that evening and achieved a personal best in deadlifting, without any leakage!