Sarah Palin is a prime candidate...for urinary incontinence

Sarah Palin is a prime candidate for uterine prolapse or urinary incontinence. I know, this seem like a hit below the belt-way below the belt if she wears mom jeans. But now that Sarah Palin has a very platform from which to discuss special needs children and teen pregnancy, maybe her time in the spotlight can also be used to highlight something that affects about half of all women- urinary incontinence.

I don't want to focus on her specific lady parts, but, my gosh, she's given birth to four five children, and there's no denying that those very natural processes mess with those delicate parts. Seriously, you can't fit something the size a watermelon inside your body even once for a just a few months without rearranging your internal geography a bit.

I heard two urogynecologists speak on uterine prolapse and incontinence last spring at Johnson and Johnson's Camp Baby. Urogynecologists are not women from, say, France, but rather the female equivalent of proctologists. Yeah, I know, who even new this type of specialty even existed?

And that's why they gave us The Talk at Camp Baby. Well, that and the fact that Johnson and Johnson's medical division makes internal gadgets like bladder slings. Again, who knew?

So here are a few facts from Camp Kegel, according to my notes from an informative talk by Dr. Christine LaSala and Dr. Radhika Ailawadi.

Obesity and smoking are two prime factors that contribute to urinary incontinence. Despite common misconception, pregnancy isn't a big factor, unless the pregnancy takes place in a woman's 40s.

According to my notes, which I can only hope are wrong because I was desperately kegeling throughout the workshop and watching Jaelithe send out Tweets and I can only concentrate on so many things at once, 1 in 4 pre-menopausal women has a clinically significant leakage problem and (yikes!) 1 in 2 women over the age of 60 does as well. The scary fact is that you can kegel all you want, but if you've over 60, there's a good chance you've going to pee in your pants. Statistically, if it doesn't happen to you, it's gonna happen to Sarah Palin...or me. Again, yikes! Who knew?

I'm not sure who studied this or how, but they good doctors also informed us that 1 out of 3 women do their kegels incorrectly.

The good news amongst all these eye-opening facts is that these problems can be fixed. Many women live with unpleasant or embarrassing symptoms for years because they are not aware how common these problems are or even that treatments ARE available. If incontinence is affecting you, or like one horror story we heard at Camp Baby, you're showering one day and realize your UTERUS IS FALLING OUT, remember you are not alone and help is available.

I can't speak directly to Sarah Palin's situation because it's quite possible that she has a uterus made of steel- and superwoman she is, perhaps she is not affected like most of us. I mean, if I was back at work three days after giving birth I would have need to hit the bathroom about every fifteen minutes to change my pad.

However, I am saying that if she and what's-his-name win the election and you don't see her jumping up and down, think back to this post.

Original post to Chicago Moms Blog. Kim also blogs at Hormone-colored Days and Momformation.