Every day, Boston Scientific works to develop medical innovations in pelvic floor reconstruction, excessive uterine bleeding, and incontinence that may help women lead longer healthier lives. We’re pursuing new ideas in women’s health, and exploring new ways to apply them. We’re changing the way the world thinks about delivering healthcare for women.
What is Stress Urinary Incontinence?
Urinary incontinence is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine. The problem afflicts approximately 13 million adults in the United States, 85% of them being women. There are many conditions that can cause loss of bladder control. Among women, the problem is most commonly associated with a specific condition called Stress Urinary Incontinence or SUI. Stress urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine during physical activity such as coughing, laughing, or lifting. The muscles that support the urethra (the small tube that carries urine out of the body) and bladder neck (the opening that connects the urethra to the bladder) have weakened, causing the urethra to drop during physical activity, resulting in urine leaking out of the body.
This type of incontinence can be treated with mid-uretheral slings or with bulking agents.
What is Menorrhagia?
Menorrhagia is a condition characterized by an excessively large amount of uterine bleeding during menstruation. Generally, bleeding meets the qualifications for menorrhagia if a woman must exchange sanitary products hourly, or menstruation lasts longer than seven days. Additional symptoms may include spotting or bleeding between menstrual periods. Menorrhagia has a wide variety of potential causes, including hormone imbalances, pelvic inflammatory disease, uterine fibroids, abnormal pregnancy, infection, tumors, platelet disorders, liver, kidney, or thyroid disease.
Hysterectomy has historically been the ultimate solution offered for long-term relief to women who continue to bleed despite hormonal therapy or D&C. Considerable public attention has been focused on the frequency with which hysterectomy is performed, suggesting that many of the procedures for benign conditions may be addressed with less invasive alternatives which offer outpatients procedures, decreased recovery period and less need for general anesthesia and fewer significant harmful side effects.
Possible treatments include:
Medication – Hormonal therapy, sometimes as simple as birth control pills, may be prescribed for women who experience heavy menstrual bleeding due to hormonal imbalance and who wish to preserve their fertility after treatment
A range of surgical options such as
Dilatation and Curettage (D&C) – This surgical procedure may provide a temporary solution to heavy menstrual bleeding. Risks include perforation of the wall of the uterus, injury to the bowel or other internal organs, bleeding or infection
Hysterectomy – The complete surgical removal of the uterus provides a final cure for excessive menstrual bleeding. The procedure is considered major surgery and is performed under general anesthesia. A hospital stay is generally required and recovery may take several weeks
Endometrial Ablation - a less-invasive, non-surgical option
