Can Botox Fix Your Overactive Bladder?

Divabetic

I was watching ‘Good Morning America’ on the treadmill at my gym when I saw a commercial advertising botox to help overactive bladder. I couldn’t help wondering if botox really works?

According to WebMD, twice as many women who received the Botox reported that their incontinence went away. However,  the effects of Botox on the bladder don’t last forever. Women will likely need another injection within nine months to a year to keep their bladder symptoms under control.

Overactive bladder is marked by a sudden, uncontrollable urge to urinate, which can lead to the involuntary loss of urine, called urge incontinence. Botox works by relaxing the bladder muscle. It is already FDA-approved to treat urinary incontinence due to overactive bladder related to nerve damage from conditions such as multiple sclerosis and spine injury.

But doctors are allowed to use their own judgment to prescribe Botox “off-label” to treat overactive bladder from other causes.

Medications called anticholinergics are also used for overactive bladder. They work to relieve symptoms by relaxing the muscles of the bladder.

As reported by WebMD,  a new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine ,found that for women who had urge incontinence a one-time Botox injection in the bladder worked as well as daily pills at reducing episodes of urinary incontinence at six months.

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