Perimenopause Bladder Problems & Their Natural Remedies

Natural remedies for bladder control may be all you need for greater comfort.

Many people assume that bladder problems are an inevitable part of getting older. Women in particular frequently struggle with bladder control, whether during pregnancy, after birth, or during perimenopause.

Before you accept long-term urinary incontinence or try pharmaceuticals for bladder control, you may want to try natural remedies for bladder health. For many women, symptoms like urine leakage and a frequent urge to go can be slowed or reversed with natural strategies.

Not sure if your bladder control problems are normal? Take our Bladder Control Test for Women to find out.

Perimenopause and Bladder Control

During menopause, estrogen levels decrease. It’s this drop in estrogen that scientists believe may cause urinary symptoms like frequent urination, nocturia (waking up during the night to pee), and pain. (1) When estrogen levels drop, changes occur to vaginal anatomy and many women experience weight gain, both of which could be partly to blame for bladder control problems or irritation. (2,3)

Additionally, some changes to our bladder function may simply result from getting older. Specifically, as we age, our muscles tend to weaken. And when this happens along our pelvic floor, we may experience urinary incontinence, with symptoms including leaking urine when you laugh or lift something heavy.

Natural Remedies to Keep Your Bladder Healthy

There are ways to improve your bladder health naturally. When you combine lifestyle changes, herbal remedies for bladder control, and pelvic floor exercises, you may find that some or all of your symptoms slowly fade. (4) Try the following tips and tricks to strengthen your bladder and improve your quality of life.

1. Pelvic Floor Exercises (Kegels)

You probably already exercise in an attempt to stay strong, minimize pain, or lose weight. But chances are your workouts center around your large, visible muscle groups and not your pelvic floor.

Pelvic floor muscles line the bottom of your pelvis and are essential to proper bladder control. Strengthening these muscles through pelvic floor exercise, also known as Kegels, is incredibly helpful for reducing leakage and improving your ability to hold your bladder.

For a step-by-step guide to Kegel exercises, head over to our page on bladder control exercises. If you want further guidance, consider asking your doctor for a referral to a pelvic floor therapist. A trained pelvic floor therapist can create a personalized workout plan to strengthen the muscles that support your bladder.

2. Herbal Formulations for Bladder Health

Herbal supplements can be a key tool to help keep your bladder healthy. Interceuticals founder Dr. Peipei Wishnow formulated BetterMAN and BetterWOMAN over twenty years ago, using her knowledge of human anatomy and Traditional Eastern Medicine to promote healthy aging.

These bladder control supplements include a combination of herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to help ease symptoms like frequent urination and bladder leakage. Both are clinically tested, with many customers reporting improvements in only two months.*

3. Diet and Lifestyle Changes

Not everyone wants to make large-scale lifestyle changes to improve bladder control. But if you want the best results, there are certain bladder irritants you should eliminate—or at least cut back on. Here’s a list of the daily changes you can make to improve bladder control.

• Reduce Caffeine Intake: Caffeine is a bladder irritant that can make you need to go more often. As a diuretic, caffeine is particularly troublesome when consumed in large quantities late in the day, which can cause you to wake up at night to head to the bathroom.
• Drink Less Alcohol: Alcohol has similar impacts as caffeine on the bladder and urge to go. And with most people drinking alcohol at night, it’s a common nocturia culprit.
• Stop Smoking Cigarettes: Smoking also irritates the bladder, sometimes causing overactive bladder and urinary incontinence. (5) Additionally, the related coughing spells can lead to leaking urine.
• Eat More Fiber: Straining to pass stool puts a lot of pressure on your bladder and the supporting pelvic floor muscles. Over time, constipation may cause urinary urgency and leaking. (6)
• Drink Less Before Bed: In the couple of hours before you go to sleep, it’s best to limit how much you drink if you struggle with needing to pee at night. Just make up for the lost water during the day; too little liquid can lead to constipation and the related bladder control issues.

4. Bladder Training

Do you feel like you have to go all the time? If you find it almost impossible not to stop somewhere to pee on drives and frequently wake up at night to go, you might find improvements with timed voiding. (7)

With timed voiding, you pee on a schedule. The idea is to figure out how long you usually wait between bathroom trips, then increase that time by 15 or 20 minutes. Do your best to hold your bladder for this period for a few days, and slowly increase this time until you have hours between your bathroom visits.

Read Related Articles: Female Bladder Control Issues, Bladder Leakage, Incontinence