How to Stop Peeing When You Cough: What Your Body Is Telling You and How to Fix It

Leaking urine when you cough, laugh, or sneeze is a common concern of women. Peeing when you cough, sneeze, or laugh is also known as stress incontinence and it isn’t something you have to live with. Stress incontinence is a symptom that something isn’t working that should. This can often be a problem with your pelvic floor, core, and/or diaphragm. At Vivid Women’s Health in Doylestown and Newtown, PA, our team of pelvic floor PTs help women stop leaking so that they can live an active life without fear. 

Why You Pee When You Cough

Coughing, laughing, sneezing, and jumping puts a lot of pressure on your abdomen and pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor and core muscles are responsible for supporting your organs like your bladder, uterus, and bowels. When they are not working properly, due to tightness, weakness, or poor coordination, they cannot counteract the pressure that coughing, laughing, sneezing, and jumping puts on them. This results in a small amount of urine leakage, also known as stress incontinence. 

Stress incontinence is extremely common with:

• Pregnancy or childbirth

• Hormonal changes (especially around menopause)

• Chronic coughing or constipation

• High-impact exercise

• Pelvic surgery or trauma

The good news is that stress incontinence is treatable, especially with the right approach to treatment. 

How to Stop Peeing When You Cough

Despite what many think, you don’t need to “just do Kegels” in order to stop peeing when you cough. This is because pelvic floor therapy is about teaching your pelvic floor to work with the rest of the body. Good pelvic floor therapy not only teaches you how to properly contract your pelvic floor, but also teaches your pelvic floor to work with your core, hips, ribs, and even your feet!

Here are the steps that make the biggest difference in peeing when you cough:

1. Learn How to Activate (and Relax) Your Pelvic Floor Correctly

Understand how to properly contract and relax your pelvic floor. This contraction (and relaxation) is important when you need to brace your core during tasks that require a lot of pressure such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, and even heavy lifting. 

 2. Coordinate Your Breath

On exhale, your pelvic floor muscles gently lift. On inhale, they gently relax. Being able to coordinate your pelvic floor with your diaphragm is the key to making sure that your pelvic floor lifts during a forceful exhale like a cough, sneeze, or laugh, thereby reducing leaking. 

3. Strengthen Your Core

The pelvic floor muscles work with the deep core and hip muscles. When the deep core and hip are working optimally, they put the pelvic floor in a better position to function. Targeted core and posture exercises can help distribute pressure more evenly, taking strain off your bladder.

4. Promote good bowel and bladder habits

Avoiding things like constipation can help significantly with urinary leakage. When there is increased stool in the bowel, this can put added pressure on the pelvic floor, making it weaker. In addition, staying hydrated is important because it keeps your urine pale yellow which is much less irritating on the bladder. 

5. Get a Personalized Pelvic Floor Plan

Every woman’s body is different and the thing that is driving her urinary leakage might be different. At Vivid Women’s Health, we tailor your plan based on your unique symptoms, muscle function, and lifestyle so you can finally feel in control again.

What Pelvic Floor Therapy Looks Like

Your first visit is gentle, private, and educational.

It consists of a lot of talking about your symptoms. We will also assess how your pelvic floor and core are working, and teach you simple strategies that may make an immediate difference on your symptoms. Most women start noticing improvement within just a few sessions.

As treatment progresses, we will work on further strengthening of the core and pelvic floor to improve how it functions during higher level tasks such as running, jumping, and on the trampoline. We want each woman to leave our practice confident that their pelvic floor can withstand every task. 

You Deserve to Cough, Laugh, and Live Without Worry

Leaking urine isn’t “just part of getting older” or “something that happens after kids.” It’s a sign your pelvic floor needs a little extra support—and the right therapy can help you reclaim that control and confidence.

Pelvic Floor Therapy in Doylestown and Newtown, PA

If you’re tired of peeing when you cough, laugh, or sneeze, we can help.

Our expert team at Vivid Women’s Health specializes in pelvic floor physical therapy for women dealing with urinary leakage, postpartum recovery, and core strength issues.

Schedule your evaluation today at our Doylestown or Newtown clinic and take the first step toward feeling dry, confident, and strong again.