Bladder control loss may be a common complication of menopause but not all women going through the natural changes of menopause have bladder control problems.

However, it helps to understand why you may be affected. During and after the process of menopause, the ovaries do not produce oestrogen therefore the levels of the female hormone oestrogen overall drops significantly. In addition to controlling your monthly periods and body changes during pregnancy, oestrogen helps maintain muscle tone, as the bladder is a muscle, the reduced production of oestrogen results in the reduced tone or strength of the bladder.

This loss of oestrogen makes it more challenging for the bladder muscle to maintain its strength and contain the storage of urine. So doing Pelvic Floor exercises, as recommended by the Continence Foundation of Australia and the International Continence Society, ensures that when a woman goes through menopause her Pelvic Floor muscles are still strong despite the ovaries not producing Oestrogen and the overall reduced amount of Oestrogen being available.