Personal Care

Incontinence and Diabetes

If you have diabetes, high blood glucose (blood sugar) levels can damage the nerves (neuropathy) and blood vessels in your bladder (urinary) and bowels (fecal). This damage can lead to leakage from not being able to control your bladder or bowels, called incontinence. However, there are ways to prevent, treat, and live well with incontinence by taking the right steps and speaking with your health care team to develop a treatment plan.

Symptoms of Incontinence

Common symptoms from incontinence include:

Sudden and strong need to go to the bathroom
Not being able to control it when you have the urge to go to the bathroom
Not being able to make it to a toilet in time
Still having urine in your bladder even though you’re finished going
Having bladder (urine) or bowel (fecal) leakage, like small urine dribbles when you laugh or cough or stool leaks when you pass gas
Bedwetting

These problems can make it difficult to keep your skin clean, can cause skin irritation, and if wounds develop, can cause infection.

It's also common to have bladder leaks when you’re pregnant, including if you develop gestational diabetes or live with diabetes and are pregnant. Using products designed for women with bladder leaks helps with your hygiene and comfort.

It’s important to be open with your health care team about any problems you have to make sure they’re addressed, and they can help you stay comfortable and healthy.

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How to Prevent Incontinence

The best way to prevent the nerve and blood vessel damage that leads to incontinence is to manage your diabetes. Additionally, you should:

Talk to your health care team about your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol targets and how to reach them
If you smoke, take steps to quit
Follow a healthy eating plan
Know and take steps to reach your physical activity goals
Stay hydrated by drinking water
Use the restroom when you feel the need to go

How to Treat Incontinence

Talk to your health care team. Many people may not want to talking about incontinence issues, but your health care team is there to support you and can give you the information you need about treatments, products to help prevent issues, and ways you can manage symptoms.

Treatments include:

Changes to your eating plan, like avoiding some types of foods, alcohol, or caffeine
Bladder training to increase time between restroom visits
Bowel retraining to establish a regular bowel routine
Pelvic floor exercises, such as Kegel exercises
Adding or changing medications
Hygiene products that may help with leakage to prevent skin irritation, wounds, and infection

The goal of your incontinence treatment plan is to improve your quality of life and prevent complications. Here are some of the things to discuss with your health care team for developing your treatment plan:

Your activity level.
The problems you are experiencing.
If you’re experiencing leakage, the amount and how often.
The products that are available to help protect your skin. (There are products specifically made to address problems from incontinence that are different than standard hygiene products for men and women.)