WESTON, Fla. – Over 33 million Americans suffer from some type of urinary incontinence, the majority of which are women.
Back in her late forties and early fifties, Marsha Brody started having the first signs of urinary incontinence.
“When I laughed, when I sneezed, when I coughed, it would leak,” she said.
Over the years Brody tried many ways to manage what became an increasingly embarrassing and uncomfortable problem.
“It was a terrible annoyance, really was,” she said.
When physical therapy, medications and even a surgery failed to help, Brody turned to urologist Dr. Sneha Vaish who specializes in urinary incontinence at Cleveland Clinic Weston.
Vaish has been working with a new product designed to ease urinary incontinence called Bulkamid.
“It’s a water-based gel that we can inject directly into the urethra that’s done in the office that doesn’t require a surgical procedure, doesn’t require any incisions and they can have pretty significant improvements. we’re talking between 60 to 90 percent improvements for patients,” she said.
Vaish says the 10-minute procedure can be repeated if needed and also used in conjunction other therapies.
“The other great option for this is I have a 30-year-old who wants to go on to have more children but she’s leaking after the birth of her first child, and she’s not done childbearing well this is great. I can inject you I can get you dry for the next five to 10 years until you decide how big your family is going to be and then you can come back, and we can get a permanent solution in your 40′s or your 50′s,” Vaish said.
Brody said the procedure was slightly uncomfortable, but the pain was short lived.
Now she’s able to get through her days without running to the restroom.
“I can cough, I can sneeze, I can laugh. It’s a miracle, it’s absolutely a miracle,” she said.
This new injectable is also being used ‘off label’ experimentally in men who suffer from urinary incontinence as a result of prostate cancer treatment.