While pelvic floor disorders are common, affecting up to 50% of all women, they should not be considered normal or simply part of getting old. At Overland Park Regional Medical Center, our board-certified specialists in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery will provide individualized plan of management for the correction of:
- Urinary Incontinence
- Fecal Incontinence
- Pelvic Organ Prolapse
- Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections
- Painful Bladder Syndrome
- Chronic Pelvic Pain
- Endometriosis
- Sexual Dysfunction
Our team of experts has:
- Dedicated focus on complex women’s issues with compassion and understanding to develop personalized treatment plans based on individual patient needs. Our goal is to help women get back to living a life free of pain.
- Specialized expertise - With over a decade of experience treating women with pelvic issues and performing over 6,000 reconstructive procedures for correction of prolapse, 3,000 slings for stress incontinence and 3,000 complex surgeries for prolapsed bladder
- Pioneers in the latest treatments - Surgical approaches that might include behavior modification, bladder retraining, pelvic floor rehabilitation, pharmacologic support, intravesical therapy (medicine placed directly into the bladder to correct bladder problems without side effects) as well as various techniques of neuro modulation.
If surgery is needed, you can trust the expertise of our team with over 30 years of experience treating women with pelvic disorders. We emphasize minimally invasive approaches including transvaginal as well as laparoscopic/robotic techniques. This provides the fastest recovery with the least amount of pain and complications.
Comprehensive, specialized urogyn care in Johnson County
Overland Park Regional Medical Center provides diagnostic testing onsite, including:
- Ultrasound, CT scan or MRI - Imaging used to visualize the physical organs of the bladder, pelvic, urethra or rectum
-
Urodynamic Testing - A test used to identify abnormal bladder function.
- Urodynamic testing usually takes 30 to 45 minutes. Small pressure catheters are inserted into the urethra and vagina. The bladder is slowly filled with saline. At various points during bladder filling, you will be asked to cough and strain to determine your ability to hold urine without leaking. At the end of the test, you will be asked to urinate with the catheters in place to assess how your bladder is emptied.
-
Cystourethroscopy (Cystoscopy) - A diagnostic procedures used to visualize
and detect any anatomical defects, tumors or inflammation in the urethra or
bladder.
- Cystoscopy is usually completed in less than five minutes. A small catheter-like instrument with a camera will be inserted through your urethra into your bladder. The image will be projected onto a monitor in the room. Rarely, a bladder biopsy may be needed.
- Electrodiagnostic testing (EMG) of the pelvic floor – This testing evaluates nerve function of the pelvic floor. EMG determines the pelvic floor's muscle response to a series of small electrical impulses.
- Anal Manometry - Frequently used to diagnose bowel control conditions (fecal incontinence) and other problems related to eliminating waste from the body, anal manometry involves the use of a balloon catheter to test the function of the rectum.
Therapeutic or non-surgical treatments
Minimally invasive and robotic assisted surgical techniques
Here are some common questions patients ask:
Why do I pee when I sneeze, laugh or cough?
You are describing a common form of urinary leakage called stress incontinence. It is caused by a combination of poor support to the urethra as well as weakness involving the sphincter (this represents the muscles that form the “door” to the bladder. There are many simple therapies for this particular problem including simply controlling your bladder volume by making sure that she drank a normal amount of fluid each day and urinate on a regular basis. Your Kegel muscles help provide support but often your muscles need some help so that they can support the urethra as well as help you hold that urine. A simple office laser can help improve the support with nearly a 75% success rate. This approach involves no down time yet will get you back to the gym without leakage. If necessary there is a simple outpatient surgery we can do with local anesthesia that is typically called a mid-urethral sling. This has nearly a 90-95% success rate.
What are types of incontinence?
There are 3 different types of urinary incontinence. Stress incontinence as we discussed above is very common. Urge incontinence is especially common as all of us get older. It can however affect even women in their 20s and is typically very easily controlled with behavior modification combined with medications. More advanced therapies such as Botox or neuromodulation (the use of a small surgically implanted battery-like a pacemaker-that corrects your bladder function) or sometimes required. The most common type of leakage is mixed incontinence which is a mixture of both stress incontinence and urge incontinence and requires the combination of problems to be treated at the same time.
What causes the “gotta go” feeling?
There are many different reasons for having the constant feeling that you must urinate more often than your friends. It can be simply the problem of drinking excessively. It could be a sign of over active bladder and this responds commonly to simple therapies such as medications and behavior modification. Often it is a problem caused by over active pelvic floor muscles where the muscles are too tight and it triggers the feeling that you need to urinate even though you just voided. A very simple evaluation in the office will quickly determine the cause for your symptoms and therapy is very successful. This symptom is not caused by you having a small bladder even though many people will tell you that but that is not true.