- Mother deliberately stopped drinking water to control urinary incontinence
- She became so dehydrated she had to go to hospital and be placed on drip
- She was at wit's end on how to manage it when she discovered new treatment
A mother-of-two has revealed she would deliberately stop drinking water until she became dehydrated and ended up in hospital to control her urinary incontinence.
Sydney mum Kate, who asked to not use her last name, had to be placed on a drip by nurses and cared for by doctors after she pushed herself too far.
'For as long as I can remember, the fear of not making it to the toilet without warning has plagued my life,' she said.
Kate had been struggling with urinary incontinence for most of her life with the condition taking over every aspect of her day-to-day routine.
A mother-of-two has revealed she would deliberately stop drinking water until she became dehydrated and ended up in hospital to control her urinary incontinence
'I would become dehydrated and get UTIs and didn't think I could do anything about it - it made me hide away,' she said.
'My lowest point was at the Logies with my husband. I was heading back to the room and I just couldn't last, and let go when I got in the elevator.
'I went right there in the lift. You just die on the inside. You hope that others had enough to drink and they didn't know the full extent of it and you shut yourself off from the world to save your pride.'
Kate said her problems only magnified when she had her daughters Maria, 11, and Ava, 10.
'I felt completely alone in dealing with my urinary tract issues,' she said.
'The doctors had no answers... I would be standing, holding two little babies and it hit and I had to go.
'And when they were older, I coudn't even jump, run or play on the trampoline with them.'
Kate said she was given false hope when she was diagnosed with a narrow urethra in 2017 and went in for surgery.
'It was widened but nothing changed, making feel so hopeless knowing I would have to live with incontinence forever,' she said.
'It felt like I was dying a slow death. It can put you into a spiral of sadness and frustration and you completely lose who you are.'
Kate was at her wit's end when she discovered a new form of treatment was being offered to sufferers or urinary incontinence.
VTone, from InMode's women's wellness platform EmpowerRF, a new form of intra-vaginal electrical muscle stimulation and neuromuscular re-education.
Kate said she felt results almost instantly with her life suddenly turning around.
'That night, I braved having a glass of water before bed and I walked like a regular human being all the way to the toilet. I could have jumped for joy,' she said.
'Normally, when I wake up at night I would have to hang on the entire walk to the bathroom, but that night I didn't.'
The new treatment is being offered by Obstetrician and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners Dr Elizabeth Golez.
She said it has been used in the United States and United Kingdom for the last six years but only made its way to Australia in 2021.
Urinary incontinence affects about 24 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women.
The new treatment is being offered by Obstetrician and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners Dr Elizabeth Golez
Dr Golez said there still appeared to be a stigma around talking about it despite its commonness.
'I have had one patient explain to me she hasn't even told her husband or her children,' she said.
'She said she feels like she smells when she pees and that if she tells her family they would think she has wet herself if there is a smell in the house.'
Dr Golez claimed all her patients had experienced success when they used VTone with the treatment helping them to get back to doing what they love the most.
'One lady loved to travel interstate, but hasn't gone anywhere in the last few years because of her incontinence,' she said.
'Now she is able to travel, go on holidays up to the Gold Coast, because she is feeling much more confident.'
More information about the new treatments available can be found on the InMode website.
This article was originally posted on Daily Mail UK.
