Leaking Pee in Females: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options

If you’ve ever experienced leaking pee as a female, you’re not alone. In fact, up to 50% of women leak pee at some point in their lives. Leaking pee, also known as urinary incontinence is tied to decreased quality of life and can significantly affects a woman’s social life. Experiencing urinary leakage is also a top reason why women stop participating in an exercise routine. While leaking pee can feel embarrassing, it’s actually very common and often treatable.

What Does “Leaking Pee” in Females Mean?

Leaking pee refers to the involuntary loss of urine. Leaking pee might  happen when you laugh, sneeze, cough, exercise, or even suddenly feel the urge to go and can’t make it to the bathroom in time. For many women, urinary leakage is more than just an inconvenience—it can affect confidence, lifestyle, and overall quality of life.

Types of Urinary Leakage in Women

There are several different types of urinary incontinence that can cause leaking pee in females:

1. Stress Incontinence

• Stress incontinence refers to the involuntary loss of urine during activities. Usually these activities are those that put a lot of pressure on the bladder and pelvic floor. These activities include: coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercising (most notably during running, jumping, and high impact exercise).

• Stress incontinence has many different causes, but in general it is the result of the inability of the pelvic floor muscles to counteract the pressure placed on the bladder during these tasks. 

• The aim of treatment is to help improve the coordination, strength, and ability of the pelvic floor muscles to support the bladder. 

2. Urge Incontinence 

• Urge incontinence refers to the sudden, strong urge to urinate which is either accompanied by or followed by urinary leakage. Many times urge incontinence occurs “unprovoked” and is not tied to a specific activity.

• The aim of treatment for urge incontinence is targeted at both calming the signals sent from the bladder, and to improve the coordination, strength, and ability of the pelvic floor muscles to support the bladder. 

3. Mixed Incontinence

• Mixed incontinence occurs when both stress incontinence and urge incontinence is present

4. Overflow Incontinence

• In overflow incontinence, the bladder begins to leak when it is too full. This can occur due to not emptying fully, and/or weakness in the pelvic floor musculature. 

What Causes Leaking Pee in Females?

After we figure out what type of incontinence someone is experiencing, we can begin to figure out what is specifically causing it. 

Several factors can contribute to urinary leakage, including:

• Pelvic floor muscle weakness

• Pelvic floor muscle tightness (which results in nerve compression to the pelvic floor muscles)

• Sustained pressure due to pregnancy or weight gain

• Trauma to the pelvic floor tissue due to surgeries, or childbirth

• Hormonal changes (due to postpartum or menopause)

• Weakness in other muscles of our body (such as the core, hips, or even feet which puts more pressure on the pelvic floor)

• Chronic coughing/sneezing (which puts more repetitive pressure on the pelvic floor)

• Constipation (which causes sustained pressure to the pelvic floor muscles, affects bladder filling, and causes nerve irritation)

• Certain medical conditions (such as UTIs, diabetes, and neurological disorders)

• Prolapse (which can cause the inability to fully empty the bladder) 

Treatment Options for Leaking Pee in Females

Leaking pee doesn’t have to be a permanent problem. In fact, pelvic floor physical therapy should be the first line of treatment as many causes of urinary incontinence can be fully resolved with pelvic floor physical therapy. 

Pelvic PT is a holistic approach that restores normal pelvic floor muscle function, improves coordination, and helps you return to activity without leakage

When to See a Professional for Leaking Pee

It is always best to get urinary leakage addressed. Unfortunately over time many cases of urinary leakage will get worse. In fact, we see that many patients develop other pelvic floor and pain symptoms overtime due to compensations that develop over time. 

At Vivid Women’s Health, we offer pelvic floor physical therapy for leaking pee in females. 

We help patients experiencing urinary symptoms such as:

• Urinary leakage

• Urinary Urgency

• Urinary Frequency

• Pain with Urination

Vivid Women’s Health Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy has locations in Newtown, PA and Doylestown, PA. To get started today, please call us at (267)685-6368, or click here and one of our team members will call you.