Urinary incontinence in menopausal women

• Objective: To present a case-based approach for the evaluation and management of stress urinary incontinence in menopausal women. • Methods: A review of the literature with corresponding case study presentation. • Results: Becoming familiar with the evaluation and management options of urinary incontinence is important to all practitioners who care for menopausal-aged women. Urinary incontinence affects up to 50% of women and many of the symptoms severely impact a woman's quality of life. Stress incontinence is the most common type of urinary incontinence, and the initial evaluation can readily be conducted by the primary care provider. Incontinence symptoms should be evaluated by a thorough history and physical examination, urinalysis, urine culture, postvoid residual urine testing, a simple stress test, and possibly simple office cystometry. The treatment and management of stress urinary incontinence has seen many advances in the past decade. Nonsurgical treatments should be considered first-line therapy; however, there are a number of minimally invasive, low-risk surgical procedures available to treat stress incontinence. • Conclusion: Although urinary incontinence is common, many women consider it a normal part of aging and therefore do not discuss it with their physician. With multiple effective treatments now available, primary care providers should inquire about incontinence symptoms and initiate the evaluation and management of this condition.