This is stress incontinence, which is about pressure, not being stressed. It’s caused by organs pushing down on your bladder as the result of weakness of the muscle or connective tissue in your pelvic floor. It’s much more common in women than men, since pregnancy and birth can cause the aforementioned weakness or tissue-tearing (even in moms who never wind up pushing, Dr. Rabin says C-sections can also lead to incontinence because there’s cutting across nerves). Women who have kids may have some degree of pelvic prolapse, in which organs like the uterus or small bowel are not fully anchored to the levator muscle of your pelvic floor, which Dr. Rabin describes as a trampoline at the bottom of your abdomen.
