Loss of bladder control can be temporary or permanent. Determining the right type of condition can help you arrive at a better treatment plan.

The types of urinary incontinence are:

• Stress incontinence – the type of bladder leakage where urine leaks when you apply pressure on your bladder. The activities involved include sneezing, coughing, lifting heavy objects, exercising, or laughing.
• Overflow incontinence – urinary leakage with a feeling of frequent dribbling of urine because of an overflowed bladder that cannot be emptied.
• Urge incontinence – involves waking up in the middle of the night multiple times to urinate. Patients with urgency incontinence feel forceful and sudden urges to urinate where the bladder muscle contracts involuntarily, allowing urine to leak through your urethral sphincter muscle. This is caused by urinary tract infection or other chronic conditions, like diabetes.
• Mixed incontinence – a type of urinary incontinence where patients have mixed types of overactive bladder. Those with mixed incontinence usually have urgency urinary incontinence and stress incontinence.
• Functional incontinence – a type of urinary incontinence where patients pass urine before making it to the toilet. Functional incontinence may also include a mental or physical impairment that keeps patients from reaching the toilet, like dementia, severe arthritis, and other conditions.