• Your urinary tract collects, stores, and eliminates urine from your body.
  
  
• When you eat and drink, your body absorbs liquid. Excess fluid and liquid waste accumulate in your bloodstream. Your kidneys filter your blood and remove liquid waste to make urine.
  
  
• Urine travels from the kidneys down a pair of long tubes called ureters (u-REE-turs) and empties into your bladder. A short tube called the urethra (u-REE-thrah) is connected to the bottom (neck) of your bladder. Urine exits your body through the urethra. In men, the urethral opening is at the tip of the penis.
  
  

When you urinate, several things happen:

• First the pelvic floor muscles relax, allowing urine to pass out of your body easily.
  
  
• Then your bladder muscle (detrusor muscle) contracts, pushing urine out of your bladder and through the urethra.
  
  
• Between episodes of urination, your bladder muscle relaxes, allowing urine to be stored in your bladder. At the same time, the pelvic floor muscles lightly contract, holding the urine in the bladder and supporting your bladder from underneath.
  
  

Certain neurological conditions may impair your bladder function and cause leakage or incontinence.

There are several types of urinary incontinence. The main types are:

• Stress incontinence - This is loss of urine when you exert pressure or stress on your bladder by coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising or lifting something heavy. The problem is especially noticeable when you let your bladder get too full. Stress incontinence is the most common type of incontinence. In men, removal of the prostate gland can lead to this type of incontinence.
  
  
• Urge incontinence - This is a sudden, intense urge to urinate, followed by an involuntary loss of urine. Your body may give you a warning of only a few seconds to a minute to reach a toilet. With urge incontinence, you may also need to urinate often. The need to urinate may even wake you up several times a night. In urge incontinence, the bladder is said to be "overactive". It's contracting even when your bladder isn't full.
  
  
• Overflow incontinence - If you frequently or constantly dribble urine, you may have overflow incontinence. This is an inability to empty your bladder, so it overflows uncontrollably and you leak urine. With overflow incontinence, you may feel as if you never completely empty your bladder or that you need to empty your bladder, but can't. When you try to urinate, you may produce only a weak stream of urine. This type of incontinence is common in people with a damaged bladder or blocked urethra and in men with prostate gland problems.
  
  
• Mixed incontinence - This means having more than one type of incontinence, typically stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
  
  
• Functional incontinence - Many older adults, especially people in nursing homes, experience incontinence simply because a physical or mental impairment keeps them from making it to the toilet in time. Total incontinence. This term is sometimes used to describe continuous leaking of urine, day and night, or periodic large volumes of urine and uncontrollable leaking. Some people have this type of incontinence because they were born with an anatomical defect. It can also be caused by a spinal cord injury or by injury to the urinary system from surgery.
  
  
• Incontinence from surgery - This can result as a side effect from certain operations, such as rectal surgery, prostatectomies or lower intestinal surgery.
  
  

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