Kegals forever?

Posted by kenhorse @kenhorse, Apr 28 1:53pm

I'm at 16 months since my RARP and overall I'm doing great. My only real struggle has been ongoing incontinence. Quite minor to be sure (typical worst case is about 5 to 10 ml leaked a day) but it would be nice not to have to deal with it.

I've been doing Kegals since my surgery and they certainly have helped (initially I was leaking a LOT more), so I took my issue to my urologist (who did my surgery) and on Friday, he performed a cystoscopy and I'm happy to report everything looks good from that perspective. But I asked him if I'd have to be doing Kegals every day forever and he told me, "probably not". As he explained it, once your pelvic floor muscles are toned, they should remain that way with only a little maintenance. As in once a week or so.

I've never heard that before and I'm hoping he's right. He also said that chances are, as I am this far out from surgery and not totally continent, that I probably would never be without surgical intervention. But that's another story....

Anyone heard this about Kegals before?

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retireddoc | @retireddoc | May 3 7:40am

I am almost 3 years post RP, 71 years old. Have never gained complete continence. Almost there a year ago but then had pelvic radiation and the incontinence worsened. I wear a light Tena pad and mainly have stress incontinence with vigorous exercise and golf (walk).
After my prose biopsy, I was given a book by Vanita Gaglani on Life after Prostatectomy, available on Amazon. She is an experienced Pelvic Floor PT and details the road to continence. In a nutshell there are 3 components:

pelvic floor/core exercises

teaching the bladder to hold urine so bladder capacity is increased-concentrated urine is more irritating to the bladder and promotes leakage

avoiding certain foods and drinks which irritate the bladder and increase leakage