how desperate our patients are; desperate for information, for answers, and
for education. They flew to Los Angeles from around the world because
access to physicians experienced in this speciality was not available near
their homes.My choice of medical specialty was validated by the fellowship.
During that year, I decided that a book on this subject, written by a committed
medical professional, would be helpful to many women.
Over the past 20 years, tremendous social and financial resources have
been put into research on cancer and heart disease. As a result of the scientific
advances in these areas, people are living longer.
Older Americans
expect to lead active lives playing golf, traveling, and continuing to engage
in sexual relations later in life. Quality of life has taken on new meaning in
the recent decade. Male impotence, once rarely discussed or acknowledged
as a medical issue, is now taken seriously and treated effectively.With more
women physicians treating women patients, we, too, are acknowledging the
importance of lifestyle problems in our patients.
This book serves as a guide for women who are seeking treatment for
the debilitating problems of the urinary tract for their family members. It
touches on disorders that affect millions of women, most of whom have no
idea where to turn for help. In many cases, physicians themselves are not
familiar with the problems from which many of you suffer.
As a clinician
and a surgeon, I am committed to understanding my patients’ problems and
applying the optimal treatment available in order to ease and cure their
urinary tract problems. No book addresses urinary tract problems in
women exclusively. It is my great hope that this book will enlighten women
to better understand their problems and help to ease their embarrassment,
anxiety, and suffering. As more women become assertive in discussing their
concerns in this medical field, more physicians will respond effectively and,
one hopes, empathetically.
I have divided the book into five sections, each of which focuses on
one aspect of the urinary tract. The first section reviews terminology and
anatomy, as well as which medical specialty to turn to for help for your
problems. The second section addresses urinary leakage, of which two main
types occur in women: stress incontinence and urge incontinence. Stress
incontinence occurs when mechanical stress, or pressure, such as laughing,
coughing, or sneezing, causes urine to squirt out of the urethra. The second
type of incontinence, and the cause of much embarrassment, anxiety, and
discomfort for women who are so afflicted, occurs when the urge to urinate
results in leakage before you can get to the bathroom.
The third section deals with pelvic organ prolapse, a condition in
which the bladder, rectum, small intestine, or uterus falls into the vaginal
canal. The fourth section reviews the causes and treatments of the painful
bladder, including urinary tract infections and interstitial cystitis. The fifth
section looks at the effects menopause can have on urological symptoms.
Anesthesia and pain control for urological surgery are also reviewed. Finally,
a glossary provides easy-to-understand explanations for the technical and
medical terms discussed throughout the text.