Elderly Toilet Hygiene 

What is Elderly Toilet/ Personal Hygiene and Its Importance?

Elderly Personal hygiene is how you keep your body clean, and this includes elderly toilet hygiene, bath/ shower hygiene, nail and hand hygiene, teeth hygiene, and skin and hair hygiene.

These are all important parts of your daily living routine to reduce the risk of illness and keep you healthy. For example, if you have poor hand hygiene, not washing your hands as much as you should or properly, then you could be moving germs and bacteria around. That can cause illnesses such as stomach problems.

Elderly Toileting

Elderly toileting includes everything involved in the process of the elderly/ older adult using a toilet – or toilet aid –  to empty their bladder and bowels (wees and poos).

This could be self-toileting or assisted toileting. Assisted toileting refers to supporting someone – in this case, the elderly – to undertake that process of emptying their bladder/ bowels.

Talking about going to the toilet is not always the easiest or most pleasant conversation to have. However, it is often a necessary and important one, especially as one grows older.

Various things in our lives can affect our ability, or lack thereof, to use the toilet as we normally would. This stretches from anxiety affecting one’s urine retention to medication affecting one’s ability to move the bowels.

What is Toilet Hygiene?

Toilet hygiene can refer to keeping your bathroom clean, but it can also refer to keeping yourself clean when using the toilet.

Bathrooms and toilets are humid rooms and are the perfect place for bacteria to grow. Because of this, it is important to keep your bathroom clean and tidy. And it is a must to wash your hands properly after using the toilet.

This means washing your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds. Remember to clean the palms and backs of your hands, between your fingers, your thumbs and wrists. If you don’t have access to water and soap, then you can use a hand sanitiser that has an alcohol level of 60%.

Elderly Toilet hygiene also includes how you clean or wipe yourself after using the toilet. If you are a lady, wiping front to back after urination will prevent you from getting Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) – as your vulva, urethra and anus are all close together.

After doing a poo, you can reach around your back, if you are able, and wipe from front to back. You can also reach through your legs, as long as you wipe front to back. If neither of these is possible, then there are toilet aids that can help you reach further down. These are discussed later in this post.

As a man, you can wipe any comfortable way. If you have diarrhoea though, you want to wipe in a way that won’t cause any more discomfort. It can be useful to use wet toilet paper or unscented wet wipes to clean yourself. It is also said that washing within the shower or with a hygiene toilet bidet is better for you after diarrhoea.

Toilet Hygiene for Elderly

As you get older, you might begin to need help when going to the toilet. This could be with help getting on and off the toilet, with cleaning yourself correctly and washing your hands after.

And if you are caring for an older adult, be aware of what you might need to do to help them with their toileting. If you are unable to help, then it might be best to look for an outside carer to help you and the person you are caring for.

Toilet hygiene for the elderly will differ depending on your level of mobility. In any case, you might benefit from having rails fitted at the side of your toilet to help to get on or off. You can also use the rails to hold on to, if someone else is helping you remove clothing; or helping you to clean yourself.

If you are physically able to use the toilet, you might need a little help getting to the toilet or removing clothing. If bedridden, then you might prefer the use of a bedpan or commode.

When caring for someone who needs help to use the toilet, remember to ask them if it is okay for you to help before stepping in. It can feel very undignified for people to need help using the toilet, so making them as comfortable as possible is quite necessary.

This could be simply allowing them some privacy while they take care of their business by closing a curtain around the toilet or commode, or pulling the door closed.

They might be able to wipe themselves clean. However, if you need to lend a hand, make sure they hold on to the safety rails in a comfortable position. Use toilet roll and wipes to get them clean, or use water if they prefer that.

Also, remember the personal hygiene rules for wiping front to back. Finally, thoroughly wash your hands after – as well as the hands of the person you are caring for.

Why is Toilet Hygiene Important for the Elderly?

Toilet Hygiene is important for the elderly, as it can serve to keep you healthy and free of illnesses.

It is also important to remember that people might have different levels of need when it comes to hygiene. It isn’t always possible for someone to keep themselves as clean as they should.

If you are caring for an older adult, you can ask them what help will be useful for them.

Toilet Solutions for Elderly

What is a Toilet Aid for Elderly?

A toilet aid is anything that can help you use the toilet, in an easy and convenient way.

Toilet aids can help people with disabilities affecting their mobility, and using the toilet. They are also useful for the elderly.

A toilet aid can be anything from a toilet frame to a hoist.

Toilet Mobility Aids

Which toilet mobility aid is perfect for you depends on what you need help with. If you struggle to get on and off the toilet, toilet surrounds could help you lower yourself onto the toilet – as well as to get back up – more easily.

You might also benefit from a raised toilet, meaning that you do not have to go so low to sit on the toilet. Raised toilets are called comfort toilets. You can either buy a whole new toilet that is raised higher from the ground; Or you can buy frames that sit over your pre-existing toilet that gives the same height.

The ideal toilet height to allow easier sitting and standing motons, should be between 17 and 19 inches from the ground.

A few things you should consider with a comfort toilet is if it’s too high and your feet are dangling, then this can cause pain and numbness. Raised toilets will also put you in a position that is not useful, if you have constipation. You can prevent this by using a footstool to raise your feet, and therefore your knees, higher up to help.

If you or the person you are caring for has bad eyesight or dementia, then having a brightly coloured toilet seat, or Coloured Toilet Lights around the seat could make it easier for them to see. The coloured toilet lights can also be used as a night light, to find the way to the toilet during the night or dark evenings.

If you have a problem with cleaning yourself after using the toilet, then you can use a Bottom Wiper. This is a long device that can help you reach behind yourself comfortably, to clean yourself properly. You can also get portable bottom wipers for when you are out and about.

Sitting on a toilet, especially for longer periods of time, can be uncomfortable. So you can also buy Padded Toilet Seats that can help prevent you from becoming sore from the normal plastic toilet seats.

What are the Best Toilets for Seniors?

The best toilet for seniors is a very individualistic decision. What is most comfortable or easy to use for one person might not be for another. Also, replacing a whole toilet might be too expensive for you. The aids above allow something for everyone in a range of comforts, mobilities and prices.

If you can afford to, then an electronic built-in bidet toilet – such as the Washloo could be useful for you. Prices range from £500 to a few thousand pounds for these kinds of toilets. But if you struggle to clean yourself or the person you are caring for, then this could be an invaluable help to you.

What Could be Used if a Person is Unable to Walk to the Toilet?

There are a few things you can do if you are unable to walk to the toilet. They range from using a wheelchair to using a portable toilet for the elderly.

If your mobility is low, then you might benefit from the use of a commode, a portable indoor toilet for the elderly, a portable toilet bowl for the elderly, or a bedpan.

A commode is a portable toilet chair-like apparatus that has a toilet seat built-in with a pan underneath, allowing you to go to the toilet in any room of your home. They can also come in a wheelchair form.

A Commode

If you are completely bedbound, then a bedpan or portable urinal might be the most useful aid for you. You can get male or female urinals. A bedpan is most useful for female toileting.

A Bedpan

A Portable Urinal

You can also buy Portable Toilet Seats for the elderly, that you can take out of the house with you.

A Portable Toilet Seat

If you have enough mobility to use the toilet, then you might find using your stick, rollator or wheelchair useful to get to the bathroom.

If it is a long way to the bathroom, then it might be helpful to place a chair halfway there in case you or the person you care for needs to take a rest on the way there. Keeping the route clutter-free will also prevent any accidents or falls.

Elderly Incontinence and Incontinence Help for Elderly

Incontinence is the loss of control over your bowels or bladder. It can happen for many different reasons due to medications, certain illnesses or disabilities, or due to a general weakening of the pelvic muscles as you get older.

Incontinence Assessment Tool Elderly

As there are different types of incontinence, your doctor will have to look carefully at your symptoms to diagnose which type you have and therefore, which treatment plan is best for you.

You might have to go through an examination and note any symptoms you have been experiencing. If you are experiencing bowel or faecal incontinence, then they might use the Bristol Stool Chart to see whether you are experiencing constipation or diarrhoea.

Symptoms of Incontinence in the Elderly

Symptoms of incontinence in the elderly are urinating or defecating unintentionally.

If this is happening to you or the person you are caring for, then it can be a difficult thing to talk about. It is still a very taboo topic, but the more open we can be about using the toilet, the easier these conversations can be.

If you are experiencing incontinence, it is widespread so check in with your doctor. There could be a simple fix for what is causing it. But if not, your doctor will be able to help you get the correct care.

Double Incontinence in Elderly

Double incontinence refers to having both urinary and faecal incontinence at the same time.

Sudden Incontinence in the Elderly 

Sudden incontinence is an ‘all-of-a-sudden’ urge to go to the bathroom. This can be caused in the elderly due to Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or Strokes.

However, if incontinence is a new symptom for you, please see your doctor who can diagnose what might be causing it.

Bowel or Faecal Incontinence in the Elderly

Bowel incontinence is the inability to control your bowel function. Bowel or faecal incontinence can cause a sudden urge to poo, and to be unable to keep it in.

You might soil yourself, not realising you needed to use the toilet or leak poo. This might happen as a one-off during illness, especially if you have diarrhoea, but if this is happening continuously, then you should seek help so that it doesn’t affect your daily life.

Cause of Bowel/ Faecal Incontinence in Elderly

There are two types of incontinence in the elderly: urinary or faecal. However, each of these have several things that might be causing them.

Bowel or faecal incontinence can be caused by long-term constipation or diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or irritable bowel diseases such as Chron’s, severe piles (haemorrhoids), childbirth, surgery, and certain conditions like diabetes or strokes.

Treatment for Bowel/ Faecal Incontinence in Elderly

Depending on what is causing your bowel or faecal incontinence, there are a few different treatments that might help you.

Changes in your diet might help alleviate any constipation or diarrhoea. To avoid constipation, eat more high-fibre food such as wholemeal bread and pasta, fruits and vegetables, and drink lots of water.

To avoid diarrhoea, cut down on any high-fibre foods, reduce your alcohol or caffeine intake and avoid products with the ingredient Sorbitol in them, such as sugar-free sweets and chewing gum.

Under the care of a doctor, they might prescribe certain medicines to prevent incontinence. You might also benefit from pelvic floor (Kegel) exercises and bowel retraining.

Urinary Incontinence in the Elderly

Causes of Urinary Incontinence in Elderly

The cause of your urinary incontinence can depend on what type of incontinence you are experiencing.

Types of Urinary Incontinence

Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence can be caused by weak pelvic floor muscle or damage to the sphincter in the urethra, allowing for urine to leak out.

This damage can be caused by childbirth, extra pressure on your stomach due to pregnancy or being overweight, damage to the bladder during surgery, neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, connective tissue disorders such as Ehler-Danlos Syndrome and certain medicines.

Pressure on your bladder such as sneezing, laughing or lifting heavy objects can all cause a urine leak as well.

Urge Incontinence

If you have frequent and sudden needs to pass urine, then you might have a problem with your detrusor muscle. This muscle relaxes to fill your bladder with urine and contracts to let it out. If this isn’t functioning correctly, then you might have an overactive bladder.

An overactive bladder can be caused by drinking too much alcohol or caffeine. Or not drinking enough fluid – as overly concentrated urine can aggravate your bladder. It could also be caused by constipation, urinary tract infections (UTIs), neurological conditions and certain medicines.

Overflow Incontinence

Overflow incontinence is when you are unable to fully empty your bladder due to an obstruction such as an enlarged prostate, bladder stones or constipation. This can also be called chronic urinary retention.

Like urge incontinence, overflow incontinence can also be caused by damaged detrusor muscles.

Total Incontinence

Total incontinence means that you have no control over your bladder, and it cannot store any urine. This could mean that you pass large amounts of urine or that you pass urine occasionally but with leaking in between.

This can be something you’ve had since birth. Or could be due to an injury to the spinal cord that stops the nerve signals between the bladder and the brain. Or due to a bladder fistula – which is a small tunnel leading from the bladder to another part of the body.

Urinary Incontinence Treatment/ Solutions for Elderly

Depending on what is causing your urinary incontinence, your doctor might ask you to keep a bladder diary. Or send you for tests such as a cystoscopy to diagnose the cause.

Depending on the cause, you might be able to treat your incontinence with lifestyle changes. These changes  could include reducing your intake of coffee or tea, as they can make you need the toilet more; Doing pelvic floor  exercises (Kegel); Or through bladder training.

Solutions for Incontinence in the Elderly

For both urinary and bowel incontinence, a lifestyle change and exercise might help you. It is also possible to treat your incontinence with medication. To regain bowel control, you might be prescribed the use of laxatives for constipation and medicines such as loperamide to treat diarrhoea.

For urinary incontinence, various medicines could help you, depending on the type of incontinence you suffer from. For stress incontinence, you might be given an antidepressant called duloxetine that can increase the muscle tone of the urethra. For urge and overflow incontinence, you might be prescribed antimuscarinics and can help the detrusor muscle.

If these do not help, then your doctor might look into surgery for your incontinence.

Surgery for Incontinence in the Elderly

For bowel or faecal incontinence, surgery can be performed – usually as a last resort – to fix the anal muscles in the back passage. This could be to repair damaged muscles – placing a small electronic device that works on the muscles and nerves. Or injecting a substance such as Injectable Silicone to strengthen the muscles.

According to the National Institutes of Health:

Surgery may be an option for fecal incontinence that fails to improve with other treatments, or for fecal incontinence caused by injuries to the pelvic floor muscles or anal sphincters.

They continue that:

different surgery options include Sphincteroplasty – which reconnects the separated ends of an anal sphincter; Artificial anal sphincter – placing a cuff around the anal opening and fixing a small pump under the skin to inflate or deflate the cuff; Colostomy – where the colon is brought through an opening in the abdominal wall, and the poo is collected in a bag on the outside of the abdomen and other surgeries.

For urinary incontinence, the NHS  advises there are different surgical options:

For stress incontinence, doctors can perform colposuspension, sling surgery, or tape surgery. These are ways to support the bladder or the urethra to prevent any leakages.

You can also have urethral bulking agents injected that will strengthen certain muscles. Or have an artificial urinary sphincter inserted.

For urge incontinence, you might have botulinum toxin A injections, sacral nerve or posterior tibial nerve stimulation. These can help your muscles and detrusor muscle to relax, meaning you should feel the need to urinate less. 

Or augmentation cystoplasty to make your bladder bigger. Or urinary diversion that allows you to collect urine in an external catheter.

If you suffer from overflow incontinence, then you might be recommended a type of catheterisation. A clean intermittent catheterisation (CIC) which is used to empty your bladder at regular intervals and straight into the toiler. Or an in-dwelling catheter which is fixed in place and allows you to collect urine in an external bag.

Dealing with Incontinence in the Elderly

If you or the person you are caring for are suffering from incontinence, then please visit your doctor for help. In the meantime, here are a couple of things that can help you in your daily life.

Incontinence Diapers or Nappies for Elderly

Depending on if your incontinence is mild or severe, there are different products you might find helpful.

If it is mild, then pad-like incontinence products could be the best option for you.

If the incontinence is more severe, then you can buy absorbent pull-up pants that work in the same way as baby nappies that have several lining layers that pull the urine away from the top layer to keep you dry and fresh.

For bowel incontinence, you can also use pads or pull-up pants as well as foam plugs that can be placed inside the anus to prevent leaks.

You might also benefit from getting a Radar Key that allows you access to public toilets. These should be available in pharmacies in supermarkets, but you can also check the Bladder and Bowel UK website to find the right product for you.

Incontinence UTI Elderly

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are very common if you suffer from incontinence, especially if you wear incontinence pads or underwear.

A UTI happens when bad bacteria enter the urinary tract, which can cause uncomfortable symptoms such as burning or dark, foul-smelling urine. UTIs can be difficult to diagnose in the elderly as it can also cause symptoms that might seem connected to other things such as dementia or dehydration.

You can prevent UTIs with good hygiene and habits such as wiping front to back, keeping yourself dry after changing hygiene/ incontinence products – as bacteria grows best in moist conditions.If you find yourself with a severe UTI, then check with your doctor for the right treatment.

There are ways to relieve it yourself. Such as drinking plenty of water to flush out any bad bacteria; Using medication such as ibuprofen to relieve any pain; As well as heat pads.

Urinary Incontinence and Falls in the Elderly

Urinary incontinence and falls are two of the biggest things that affect the elderly.

Studies have been done to see if there is a link between the two. They found that if you suffer from one, then you will most likely suffer the other.

This could be caused by stress and multi-tasking, as in walking very quickly to the bathroom while also trying to prevent urine from leaking.

Incontinence Exercises for Elderly

Another way to improve your incontinence is through pelvic floor or Kegel exercises. These help to strengthen the muscles around the vagina, penis, bladder and bottom.

You will find an in-depth look at these exercises further into this article.

Skin Care Incontinence Elderly

If you experience incontinence, then you are also likely to experience skin irritations. To help prevent skin irritations, remember to clean and dry yourself or the person you care for after urinating or having a bowel movement.

This will remove any bacteria, and keeping the area dry will prevent bacteria from growing in the future.

Using a moisturiser or skin sealant – such as Vaseline Jelly, Lanolin cream – can prevent any rubbing, rashes or dryness caused by pads or pull-up pants. They form a protective barrier on the skin.

Toileting Programme

A toileting programme is a routine set out for when you use the toilet. This can help with incontinence.

A toileting schedule for elderly – or those with incontinence – can help you see where any incontinence problems lie and help you to fix them. Such a schedule or programme will be introduced to you if you are having problems with your continence, such as needing to urinate often or being unable to empty your bladder fully.

A toileting routine for elderly won’t just help with any incontinence, but it could also help reduce the risk of falls.

If you know exactly what time you can go to the toilet, then you can take your time to get there, instead of potentially rushing and taking a fall.

A toileting programme might also be known as timed voiding. Or Toilet Timing.

Timed Voiding/ Toilet Timing for Elderly – What is Timed Voiding?

Timed voiding – or toilet timing – is when you set a routine for peeing/ pooing, so you will only go to the toilet at set times.

For example, you might go every 1.5 – 2 hours, even when you don’t feel the need to go.

Timed Voiding Bladder Training

Timed voiding/ toilet timing is a useful treatment for urinary incontinence.

The aim is to build up the timed voiding from every hour, to every hour and fifteen minutes, to every hour and thirty minutes, then every hour and forty-five minutes, and so on.

Until you can get a few hours in between needing to use the bathroom.

 Using timed voiding alongside pelvic floor or Kegel exercises, help you have more control over your bladder.

To speed up your results, you could add the use of a Pelvic Floor Machine or a Pelvic Floor Toner. The big ones on the market at the moment are the Elvie Trainer Exerciser that starts at £169, or the Kegel8 V at £159.99. They are available for women and men.

Using timed voiding and pelvic floor or Kegel exercises alone could take between 4 and 6 weeks to show any results – so do stick with it.

If you are still struggling, then return to your doctor to see what other options there are to assist you.

How Do I Empty my Bladder Fully?

Sometimes you might feel the need to go to the bathroom immediately after having just used the toilet. This might mean that your bladder wasn’t fully emptied.

You can change this by using a technique called Double Voiding.

What are the Steps to Double Voiding?

You can begin double voiding by:

1. Sitting on the toilet, and leaning forward slightly
2. Rest your hands on your thighs, urinate as normal. Then wait for 20 to 30 seconds when it is done
3. Lean slightly more forward and try to urinate again
4. You can also try rocking side to side to stimulate the bladder, but only if you can hold yourself properly on the toilet seat
5. If you can, you might also benefit from standing up and moving around between the first passage of urine and the second

Be careful not to strain when using the toilet as this can damage your pelvic floor muscles. You should be able to tell that your bladder is empty if you no longer feel the need to urinate.

What is Prompted Voiding?

Prompted voiding is when you are guided by someone – or something else – to empty your bladder at a set routine, to prevent any accidents or leaking.

Carers can use this if the people they are caring for suffer from incontinence.

It works alongside timed voiding/ toilet timing.

Prompted voiding can help remind you, or the person you are caring for, if you have trouble with remembering.

Urinary Retention

What is Urinary Retention?

Urinary retention is being unable to empty your bladder fully. This might mean that you cannot start urination, or that you might not be able to empty your bladder fully.

Urinary Retention Causes

There are a few different things that can cause urinary retention.

You might have an issue with one of the muscles in your lower abdomen called sphincters.

It could also be an inflammation in the urethra, urinary tract stones or some other obstruction stopping urine from being able to leave the bladder.

Additionally, various medicines can affect your bladder’s ability to squeeze out urine. Such medicines include Amphetamines and Antihistamines.

It is always important to check the side effects of your medication, so you know what to look out for.

If you have nerve problems due to an injury to the spine, a stroke or Parkinson’s disease, then your bladder might not be able to send signals to your brain to let it know that it is full.

Also, if you have recently gone through surgery such as a joint replacement or spinal surgery, then you might experience urinary retention for a short time.

Prostate problems can also cause urinary retention, if the prostate has become inflamed or infected.

As a lady, if you still have your uterus, then infections and prolapses might cause problems with urinary retention.

Acute Urinary Retention

Acute urinary retention is when you feel a strong urge all of a sudden to use the toilet but are unable to go.

This can cause pain and discomfort in your abdomen and should be checked by a medical professional as soon as possible.

Urinary clots can cause this retention.

Chronic Urinary Retention

Chronic urinary retention is when you suffer from urinating problems over a long time.

This might begin as needing to use the toilet excessively, eight or more times a day. Or being unable to empty your bladder fully.

Chronic urinary retention can eventually lead to worsening symptoms, so it’s vital that you check in with your doctor as soon as you can.

What Causes Urinary Retention in Elderly?

One can have issues with urinary retention at any age, but an elderly person might be more at risk.

This might be due to the increased risk of joint surgery as mobility decreases; Or one might be taking more medicine that can cause harmful side effects.

Or then, it may be because one’s muscles become weaker with advanced age.

Urinary Retention Symptoms

Symptoms of urinary retention might show differently in different people.

You want to look out for:

• The need to urinate more than eight times a day
• Difficulty starting to urinate
• A weak stream of urine, or that it starts and stops
• You feel the need to use the toilet as soon as you have finished using the toilet
• You have to pee multiple times during the night, disturbing your sleep
• Urine leaks
• The urgent feeling of needing to urinate and being unable to stop yourself from going
• An ongoing fullness or discomfort in your lower abdomen and pelvis.

Urinary Retention Treatment

If you are suffering from acute urinary retention, then you might be given a catheter to release the urine. If this isn’t possible, then a suprapubic catheter can be connected through the skin after they have given you a local anaesthetic.

Treatment for chronic urinary retention will depend on what is causing it and how it is affecting your life.

You might be able to fix your symptoms through lifestyle changes such as managing your intake of liquids, using timed or double voiding as well as pelvic floor or Kegel exercises. If an infection has caused it, then you will be given antibiotics.

You might also be given medication that relaxes your muscles or sphincters, or that can reduce the size of your prostate. You might be fitted with a catheter to release the urine building up in your bladder, or you might go through urethral dilation where they enlarge your urethra with tubes.

With the use of a cystoscope, they can enter the bladder through the urethra to remove any blockage or stones. You might need surgery to remove anything causing problems such as the prostate, or to open a stricture in your urethra.

Urinary Retention after Catheter Removal

You might have increased urinary retention after catheter removal for 24 hours. Your body might produce more urine than usual, as so much was evacuated all at once.

If this lasts longer than these 24 hours, then it can lead to your body losing too much water and salt, which can be damaging.

Medical professionals will monitor this to prevent any further problems.

Can Anxiety cause Urinary Retention?

Anxiety can cause urinary retention.

When you are anxious, your muscles tense up and put pressure on areas such as your bladder which makes you feel like you need to urinate more often.

This is very common in people with high anxiety or those that suffer from panic attacks.

If this is you, then you probably have ways to help re-centre yourself. If not, try a calming breathing exercise or meditation. You can find videos on Youtube or through apps such as Headspace.

Does Urinary Retention Go Away?

Urinary retention might not go away on its own.

You might be able to control it if it’s caused by stress or anxiety, but if not, there might be a bigger underlying problem such as an infection – or by a medication’s side effect. In this case, it is always best to seek medical help.

The medical professionals will be able to give you the best treatment plan, to either get rid of urinary retention or to get it to a manageable place, so it isn’t affecting your daily life.

Exercises for Urinary Retention

The best exercise for urinary retention is to do Pelvic Floor or Kegel exercises. You will find more information on these further down in this article.

How Serious is Urinary Retention?

Urinary retention can be severe in certain situations, such as if it is acute or after catheter removal.

However, it is straightforward to diagnose, and there are a lot of treatment options out there for you to try.

If you are worried about urinary retention, speak to your doctor to see what the best options are for you.

Bladder Distention and Urinary Retention

Bladder distention is the stretching of your bladder with water.

Urinary retention can cause you to hold urine in your bladder for large periods of time, causing distention to your bladder. This can lead to bladder desensitisation.

With the treatment of the cause of your urinary retention, your bladder distention can be managed.

Pelvic Floor Muscle/ Kegel Exercises for Elderly

What is Pelvic Floor?

The pelvic floor is the area at the base of your core, the muscles are found in your pelvis, that stretch from your pubic bone in the front, under to your coccyx in the back.

Pelvic Floor Muscles

Your pelvic floor muscles support your bladder, the uterus and bowel or large intestine. These muscles can be affected by childbirth, being overweight as well as old age.

Weak pelvic floor muscles can cause issues with your bladder and bowel leading to incontinence.

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

Pelvic floor dysfunction is when you are unable to control the muscles in your pelvic floor.

This dysfunction forces you to contract your muscles instead of relaxing them. This can cause discomfort and long-term colon problems. You will most likely be suffering from urination problems, constipation, pain in the lower back as well as muscle spasms in your pelvis.

Pelvic floor dysfunction can be caused by childbirth, nerve damage or obesity.

You can treat this by doing pelvic floor or Kegel exercises; avoid straining when going to the toilet; do relaxing stretches such as yoga; and take warm baths.

Your doctor might also prescribe muscle relaxants to help. However if these do not help, then they might look into surgery to help your symptoms.

How to Strengthen Pelvic Floor Muscles

You can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles by doing pelvic floor/ Kegel exercises. You can do these exercises while standing, sitting or lying down.

Find your pelvic muscles by squeezing them, as if you were stopping the flow of urination.

The NHS pelvic floor exercise says to squeeze and contract your muscles 10 to 15 times. As you get more used to doing this, you can hold them for longer and longer, and do more and more.

Take care not to overdo it though. The goal is to hold the contraction for 10 seconds, then rest for the next 10 seconds between each full contraction. This avoids over-working the muscles.

Pelvic floor/Kegel exercises can take a few weeks to show results, after which you should begin to feel stronger in your pelvic floor. A stronger pelvic floor should help with any urinary or bowel incontinence.

Other Kegel and pelvic floor exercises you can do are:

Lying on your back with your feet on the floor, knees bent, slowly lifting your hips off the ground. Hold your hip there while squeezing your pelvic floor muscles for five seconds. No w, release your hips back to the floor.

You can repeat this between 5 or 10 times, slowly building it up.

Pelvic Floor Machine and Pelvic Floor Toner

Various products can help with your pelvic floor exercises. These can range from simple weights, to electronic devices that link to your phone where you play a game as you work out your pelvic floor muscles.

These can be quite helpful, if you want a quicker result – or the lazy way out of doing the exercises yourself. 

The big ones on the market at the moment are the Elvie Trainer Exerciser that starts at £169 or the Kegel8 V at £159.99. They are available for both women and men.

Benefits of Pelvic Floor/ Kegel Exercises

These exercises have many benefits for you, helping you to control the muscles around your bladder and bowels. And leading to less incontinence.

It is useful to start exercising your pelvic floor muscles at any age, as it will on help you as you grow older.

Also, it’s never too early or too late to start Kegel exercises.

How Do You Know if You are Doing Kegels Correctly?

You will know if you are doing Kegels correctly when you feel the muscles in your pelvis contracting. You should not be squeezing your thigh or abdominal muscles.

You can test this by placing a hand on your stomach or thigh, try squeezing your pelvic floor muscle, and if you feel no contraction, then you are doing it right.

Elderly Kegel exercises can be done in any position, so if you are bedbound or are more comfortably lying or sitting down, then you don’t have to worry about moving around to do them.

Conclusion

If you are having issues with your continence – urinary or faecal – then seek help from a medical professional.

They will be able to work with you to agree a treatment plan that is right for you, and whatever is causing your incontinence specifically.

If you are worried about future incontinence issues, then get started with Kegel exercises to help strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.

There quite a lot of things out there that can give toileting support to the elderly. These range from toilet surrounds to bed toilets. They vary and can fit any budget and lifestyle, to make your daily toileting much easier.