Lindsay’s Story: Unravelling Urinary Incontinence

In this episode we meet Lindsay. Lindsay’s experience with perimenopause began very early, in her late 30s. The key issue she was having was urge incontinence, where the urge to urinate comes on quickly and is hard to control.

Lindsay’s other main symptom was migraine headaches that were very painful and disruptive. When she finally found herself with such extreme urge incontinence that she couldn’t contain her urine as she got out of her car, she knew something had to be done.

Lindsay’s frustration and distress about her menopausal transition symptoms is only part of her story. She has experienced, as many of us have, the second-class status of women’s health. She had to become a strong and vocal advocate for her own health because none of her healthcare providers were taking her seriously. When she became the ‘squeaky wheel’, insisting on digging into her concerns, the doctors finally discovered significant ovarian cysts and realized the root cause of her symptoms was perimenopausal hormone changes.

Lindsay’s story is unique, yet the experience of disturbing, disruptive symptoms and a lack of concern from the medical establishment will be familiar to many women.