Male urine incontinence

All of the problems described can occur in men following prostate cancer surgery. They are more common in men who have a non-robotic radical prostatectomy, but can still occur temporarily after robotic surgery to remove the prostate gland.

The problem may resolve within a few days, but if it doesn’t, we start with non-invasive treatment techniques:

Lifestyle advice: our specialist nurses responsible for advice about incontinence can help you to train your bladder by controlling your fluid intake during the day, timetabling trips to the toilet and by strengthening your pelvic floor muscles.

• Medical treatment: various drugs are available to block the release of messages of nerves from the bladder if urge incontinence is a problem.
• Botox® injections: these can be effective in controlling an overactive bladder.
• Surgical options: these range from inserting a sling to support the bladder to re-routing the flow of urine to a port in the abdomen so that urine can be voided with a catheter. This latter procedure is only necessary in men with severe nerve damage.
• A further surgical option is artificial urinary sphincter surgery. Information on this surgery is available at Prostate Cancer UK, and you should discuss this option with your consultant.