Help! Im 39, no children & a year into treatment. Ac - taxol - mastectomy- radiotherapy & now kadcyla. Also on letrozole.
Im coping well considering.
This week ive had a really bad cough & have leaked urine when couging. Only a little but i am absolutely mortified. Could this be linked to my operation or medication or could it be completely unrelated?
Too embarrassed to mention to oncologist.
Any advice would be appreciated
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Hi. I have some urinary incontinence because I have a prolapse. You could ask your GP to examine you to see if you have a prolapse. If so you can be referred to a pelvic health physio who will teach you how to do exercises to try and improve your Kegel muscles to help you stop leaking urine.
Hi @Luskentyre1
I am sorry you’re experiencing this. Please know that our breast care nurses are always here and may be able to help with questions like this. Either on the ‘Ask our Nurses your questions’ forum board Ask our Nurses your questions - Breast Cancer Now forum or over the phone 0808 800 6000.
Sending our warmest,
Lucy
Hi,
Clearly you might want to check with a doctor or nurse as the other responders have mentioned. I’ve been on Letrazole for about 3 years now and noticed early on a need to pee more, and sometimes more urgently. If you check the side-effects on the med sheet you’ll see something like that. I now only very rarely drink caffeinated tea or coffee (as for me they are irritants) and the problem for me is sorted by that - I also sleep better as a nice side-effect of less caffeine 
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Hopefully once your cough gets better it should stop - it happens to me sometimes if I get a chesty cough . I was taught an exercise by an Osteopath that was actually to help support my knees by strengthening my thigh muscles - but it is actually for the pelvic floor and I noticed a difference since doing it.
Sit up straight in a chair with both feet flat on the floor about hip width apart and put your hands on your inner thighs . Now try to push your thighs together while using pressure from your hands / arms to keep them apart . The more you do it - as many times as you want, you should feel your pelvic floor tense and you can work into that .
Hope this helps
Joanne. X
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Hello @Luskentyre1
25 years I have had stress incontinence, since giving birth. Little did I know that it was not OK to leak when exercising and should have done something about it. This year I was referred to urogynacology as I can feel a Prolapse. Didn’t know either that a prolapse can be bladder, womb or bowel. Big learning curve for me.
The options are physio or surgery which can cause more problems. Ladies do your pelvic floor exercises everyday. I’m on a waiting list for physio. Am doing the pelvic floors from the NHS website and it is making a difference, thank you Joanne for sharing your chair exercise I will try that too.
Such a good forum, thank you breast cancer now.
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Thanks for sharing your experience & exercise. Will definitely give it a try.
Thank you
I hadnt realised the nhs website had exercises, ill definitely look them up, thank you.
Hope you’re doing ok
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I hope it helps - I’ve sometimes struggled with some of the other pelvic floor exercises . Some Yoga exercises and swimming have helped me as well .
Joanne. X
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The depletion of estrogen by Letrozole may be affecting muscle efficiency in that department.
I know what you mean by being embarrassed to ask things…you’d really think that when we’re talking to someone who is intimate with one bit of our body normally private (and inside our bodies that we ourselves can’t even see!) that it would be easy to talk about other bits - but it isn’t is it!? I have even been too embarrassed to go and get a bra fitting in M&S - the assistants look so young and pretty, I just don’t want to make myself feel worse!
Sometimes incontinence due to Letrozole is dismissed by health practitioners here, but I think it is acknowledged in the USA. You could research a bit and then ask the oncologist.
Let’s both be braver in our quest for ‘normality’! They can’t help us if we don’t ask!
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I also think the exercises sound useful. A physiotherapist/yoga teacher showed me how to stand and walk better when I had a bad back. It involved pelvic floor tightening and I’m trying to do it regularly. Got to be a good habit to get into - I’m 69 - I wish I’d done it earlier!
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Hi all,
I know its a substantial time since i posted but wanted to update you all that i no longer have this issue - at all.
I firmly believe kadcyla was affecting my continence. Finished it in April & had no more issues.
Thanks all for the support.
Hope youre all doing well x
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