Views of Normal Bladder Function Among Women Experiencing Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

It's About Time: The Temporal Burden of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Among Women

“…Therefore, women and their health care providers may fail to address earlier onset of LUTS as a treatable medical condition. This is illustrated by findings that suggested when LUTS occurs in early-or mid-life adulthood, women often normalize it or explain it away as a situational abnormality (Williams et al, 2020). If they seek treatment, their providers may attribute the condition to aging and characterize the symptoms as untreatable (Gibson & Wagg, 2017).…”

“…Investigators from PLUS conducted a secondary qualitative analysis of de-identified interview data from LURN. The LURN interview (Burgio et al, 2020) was comprised of a series of open-ended items exploring symptom onset, duration and trajectory, symptom bother, adaptive behaviors, health care seeking, and perceptions of normal bladder functioning. Fifty interview transcripts were reviewed to inform prevention research by enhancing understanding of the lived experiences of women with LUTS, including psychological, social, and institutional processes.…”

“…A temporal (time associated) perspective is needed because LUTS can appear as an isolated disorder requiring one-time treatment plans tailored to the individual patient rather than as a chronic condition with a cluster of symptoms that impact many women and require on-going holistic care over time. Women's distress over the onset or progression of LUTS can stem, in part, from perceptions that the condition is part of aging and should not appear earlier in the life course (Burgio et al, 2020). A temporal perspective, an approach which views experiences within time-associated contexts, can illuminate the fact that LUTS is not just limited to older women.…”

A multisite focus group study of US adult women's beliefs and assumptions about bladder health and function

“…Notions of what constitutes normal bladder function among adult women with LUTS have been investigated and reveal a multifaceted depiction of the attributes of a healthy bladder, including the absence of symptoms, a seamless voiding process, voiding regularity, and the ability to delay voiding and exercise bladder control 6 . Studies exploring women's knowledge about overactive bladder (OAB) found that while awareness of the condition, its impact, and treatment options were common, 7 women exhibited limited understanding of underlying physiological mechanisms associated with bladder control and the etiology of OAB 8 …”

“…5 Notions of what constitutes normal bladder function among adult women with LUTS have been investigated and reveal a multifaceted depiction of the attributes of a healthy bladder, including the absence of symptoms, a seamless voiding process, voiding regularity, and the ability to delay voiding and exercise bladder control. 6 Studies exploring women's knowledge about overactive bladder (OAB) found that while awareness of the condition, its impact, and treatment options were common, 7 women exhibited limited understanding of underlying physiological mechanisms associated with bladder control and the etiology of OAB. 8 The aim of this study was to use qualitative methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation to characterize community-based adult women's ideas about how the bladder works, the assumptions guiding their bladder related behaviors, and the beliefs they hold about how their behaviors affect bladder health.…”