Background: Urinary incontinence can affect all people and is described as a difficulty in controlling the urine, which in turn can lead to involuntary urinary leakage. There are several reasons behind urinary incontinence, for instance due to weakness in the connective tissue and muscles of the pelvic floor. Women who suffer from urinary incontinence have thought of it as normal and temporary, although it is a permanent condition. Urinary leakage can also give the feeling of discomfort, which may evolve into anxiety and distress about how to handle the leakage. The fear of getting urine leakage publicly can also lead to social isolation. Aim: The aim is to investigate women's experiences of living with urinary incontinence. Method: A qualitative literature study of eleven scientific articles was conducted. Result: The analysis is presented with three themes; Emotional imbalance, Powerlessness and Attitude, as well as six additional subthemes; Feelings of shame, Feelings of fear, A lost bodily control, Limitations in everyday life, Feelings of taboo and Accepting existence. The main conclusion: Urinary incontinence is a taboo coated subject and may be due to several reasons, including that women feel embarrassed to speak about it publicly, which in turn may mean a lack of awareness within the health care but also among the affected women. Furthermore, when women sought treatment and found different strategies to reduce leakage, the symptoms decreased.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mdh-42821 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Abdi, Diana |
| Publisher | Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för hälsa, vård och välfärd |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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