Menstrual cups for stress urinary incontinence
Hi guys,
I am a longtime Diva cup user and love it. Learned a lot from this group when I first started. Now I finally have a question.
There is a fairly common problem for athletic women with squirts of pee during exertion. It's something that happens to CrossFitters while doing double-unders, and to high jumpers, and to powerlifters during squats and deadlifts. I've experienced this while squatting--my understanding is that the intraabdominal pressure rises so much during a heavy barbell squat that your pelvic floor muscles just have no chance. But I noticed that I do not have any problems with this while I have a cup in. I thought it was a fluke until I looked into the research on stress urinary incontinence and found out that apart from Kegels, the other solution is mechanical: a pessary inserted in the vagina applies pressure on the urethra and affects the position of the bladder. Some readings:
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/77...cG4radG1GDe.12
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/0501/p2719.html
A pessary is nothing but a silicone ring, so a cup should work similarly--and it does indeed work that way for me. Cup in, no squirts.
Some women on a barbell forum have weighed in on my discovery (link: http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=47390) and reported that cups do not have this same effect on them--some say it doesn't make a difference, and others say it even makes things slightly worse. Since there are probably many more cup users here, can you comment? Do you ever experience stress urinary incontinence during strenuous exercise, and does the cup affect it in either direction?
I am a longtime Diva cup user and love it. Learned a lot from this group when I first started. Now I finally have a question.
There is a fairly common problem for athletic women with squirts of pee during exertion. It's something that happens to CrossFitters while doing double-unders, and to high jumpers, and to powerlifters during squats and deadlifts. I've experienced this while squatting--my understanding is that the intraabdominal pressure rises so much during a heavy barbell squat that your pelvic floor muscles just have no chance. But I noticed that I do not have any problems with this while I have a cup in. I thought it was a fluke until I looked into the research on stress urinary incontinence and found out that apart from Kegels, the other solution is mechanical: a pessary inserted in the vagina applies pressure on the urethra and affects the position of the bladder. Some readings:
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/77...cG4radG1GDe.12
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/0501/p2719.html
A pessary is nothing but a silicone ring, so a cup should work similarly--and it does indeed work that way for me. Cup in, no squirts.
Some women on a barbell forum have weighed in on my discovery (link: http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=47390) and reported that cups do not have this same effect on them--some say it doesn't make a difference, and others say it even makes things slightly worse. Since there are probably many more cup users here, can you comment? Do you ever experience stress urinary incontinence during strenuous exercise, and does the cup affect it in either direction?