2. Urinary Urgency and Urge Incontinence

Sometimes the terms “urgency” and “urge incontinence” are used as synonyms when they are not. Although both refer to involuntary urine loss, the person with urgency may hold urine until they reach the bathroom, while the person with incontinence has no control over the bladder. If a person has either of these symptoms, we should do a medical interview and investigate the problem that is causing them. The bladder is a muscular reservoir where urine that forms in the kidneys is stored. From the bladder, the urine passes through the urethra to be expelled from the body. This mechanism is regulated by an internal sphincter, close to the bladder, that has involuntary action and an external voluntary sphincter that is part of the urethra. We urinate and hold urine at will by keeping the external sphincter contracted.

By BruceBlaus, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0