Have you ever watched "Malcolm in the Middle"? It's a US sitcom about a family, and I have a real soft spot for Lois, the mum. I identify with her mothering style - entirely driven by love, with an occasional turbo boost of fury.
Which is exactly where I'm at with this whole incontinence thing just now.
I've spent a bunch of time reading papers and making charts, using post-it notes, and my office wall looks like something out of CSI as I try to figure out why a third of my peers wet themselves.
Or rather, as I try to figure out why a third of my peers ACCEPT that the price of parenthood is our sexual function and
bladder control? Why do we just pad up and shut up?
And, it's made me cross. There's really no need for this misery.
This paper found that 80% of simple stress incontinence can be cured by doing pelvic floor exercises: http://w3.unisa.edu.au/researcher/issue/2005may/incontinence.asp
This one found that 84% of stress incontinence can be cured in five sessions with a physiotherapist. http://www.everybody.co.nz/page-bcf092c0-6200-481b-bda8-9add8e9c88e4.aspx
Pelvic floor exercises provide a cure for this awful, unrelenting, excruciating intrusion into your life. A cure which has no side effects, no pain, no surgery, and is low cost - but, you don't know about it because it's not in the media.
Why not?
I can't help but think it's because it's just not very attractive. It is possible to sell a story about wet women to an editor, right up until he realises I'm not talking about sexy stuff.
Our press is essentially misogynistic - crikey, the older I get the
more I suspect that EVERYTHING is misogynistic. Even our PM won't take a
stand against Page 3! Bad move, Dave. 52% of voters are women, and more women vote than men - really, you should give up telling us to "calm down, dear". Ugh.
Incontinence is a taboo. A taboo causing misery and suffering for millions of my peers. Suffering which would be relieved with a little education. A little, low cost education. It's a no brainer - but, getting the message out to you is really difficult because talking about accidentally pooing yourself isn't very pretty and so no one wants to publish it.
There are all sorts of sociological, political, economic and feminist issues wrapped up in that incontinence pad you are quietly sitting on.
You don't have to put up with it. Doing your pelvic floor exercises can solve your problem.
Go and watch Malcolm in the Middle, it's very funny, and ask yourself, what would Louis do if she knew that millions of women were needlessly, expensively, depressingly resigning themselves to a life without bladder control?
I think she'd be cross. And, then, she'd bloody well DO something about it.
Five days to the Fringe - funnies fuelled by fury.
Oh, and, thanks to this -
http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2013/07/23/18343/7._the_best_medicine I might even get an audience...gulp.
Which is exactly where I'm at with this whole incontinence thing just now.
I've spent a bunch of time reading papers and making charts, using post-it notes, and my office wall looks like something out of CSI as I try to figure out why a third of my peers wet themselves.
Or rather, as I try to figure out why a third of my peers ACCEPT that the price of parenthood is our sexual function and
bladder control? Why do we just pad up and shut up?
And, it's made me cross. There's really no need for this misery.
This paper found that 80% of simple stress incontinence can be cured by doing pelvic floor exercises: http://w3.unisa.edu.au/researcher/issue/2005may/incontinence.asp
This one found that 84% of stress incontinence can be cured in five sessions with a physiotherapist. http://www.everybody.co.nz/page-bcf092c0-6200-481b-bda8-9add8e9c88e4.aspx
Pelvic floor exercises provide a cure for this awful, unrelenting, excruciating intrusion into your life. A cure which has no side effects, no pain, no surgery, and is low cost - but, you don't know about it because it's not in the media.
Why not?
I can't help but think it's because it's just not very attractive. It is possible to sell a story about wet women to an editor, right up until he realises I'm not talking about sexy stuff.
Our press is essentially misogynistic - crikey, the older I get the
more I suspect that EVERYTHING is misogynistic. Even our PM won't take a
stand against Page 3! Bad move, Dave. 52% of voters are women, and more women vote than men - really, you should give up telling us to "calm down, dear". Ugh.
Incontinence is a taboo. A taboo causing misery and suffering for millions of my peers. Suffering which would be relieved with a little education. A little, low cost education. It's a no brainer - but, getting the message out to you is really difficult because talking about accidentally pooing yourself isn't very pretty and so no one wants to publish it.
There are all sorts of sociological, political, economic and feminist issues wrapped up in that incontinence pad you are quietly sitting on.
You don't have to put up with it. Doing your pelvic floor exercises can solve your problem.
Go and watch Malcolm in the Middle, it's very funny, and ask yourself, what would Louis do if she knew that millions of women were needlessly, expensively, depressingly resigning themselves to a life without bladder control?
I think she'd be cross. And, then, she'd bloody well DO something about it.
Five days to the Fringe - funnies fuelled by fury.
Oh, and, thanks to this -
http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2013/07/23/18343/7._the_best_medicine I might even get an audience...gulp.