AS many as one in three women will experience stress incontinence at some point in their lives. For some, the condition will severely limit their every day activities, but now a new drug trialled partly at Poole Hospital could offer them hope.

"Stress incontinence is a very common problem," said Poole Hospital consultant gynaecologist Tim Hillard. "For many women it's a minor inconvenience, nothing more, but for a lot of women, there's the possibility of a major problems that stops them from doing things they want to do and causes embarrassment."

Continence Awareness Week, which starts on Monday, this year aims to increase knowledge and understanding of stress incontinence, which is estimated to affect around 6.6 million women in the UK.

Recent research indicates that only a third of women with the condition seek help or information - perhaps because they wrongly think nothing can be done.

The condition is nothing to do with stress in the sense of anxiety, but refers to involuntary leakage of urine when the bladder is put under pressure, for example when people laugh, sneeze, exercise or lift something heavy.

It happens because the valve at the neck of the bladder (the urinary sphincter) and the pelvic floor muscles are not strong enough. Although both men and women can suffer, the condition is more common in women because pregnancy and childbirth can put enormous strain on the muscles. The trouble can flare up during the menopause and often gets worse with age.

"The main purpose of the week is to raise awareness. It's not a subject people tend to talk about and I still see many women who didn't realise anything could be done," said Mr Hillard.

"It's a problem that can be resolved. Stress incontinence is not life-threatening, but it's very much a quality of life thing."

The hospital works closely with GPs and continence advisors in primary care. "The first step is to make sure there's nothing serious going on. Occasionally there are cysts or fibroids pressing on the bladder and we have to rule out infection," said Mr Hillard.

If the problem is straightforward, the patient may be referred to a physiotherapist. By exercising their pelvic floor muscles, many women will be able to regain reasonable control.

At the moment, the only other option is surgery. One of the most popular forms is TVT (tension-free vaginal tape), which is positioned under local anaesthetic to support the bladder.

"It's a very effective treatment for the vast majority of women with this problem," said Mr Hillard, who has been using the procedure at Poole for more than five years.

New on the horizon is Yentreve, the first drug specifically developed and approved in the EU for women with stress incontinence. Poole was one of the centres used in the clinical trials.

"It works on the nerves supplying the muscles around the bladder to keep the neck of the bladder shut, reducing the frequency of leakage," explained Mr Hillard.

Factfile

About three million adults and one million children over the age of five suffer from incontinence, a loss of control over bladder or bowels. It affects men and women of all ages, although the majority of sufferers are elderly and most are women.

Only about one in six sufferers seeks help. Of those about one in seven has a treatable condition. The rest can be helped to manage their condition to have as little as possible impact on their lives.

Incontinence pads are not available on prescription from GPs but can be obtained through specialist continence services. The aim is to treat the problem, not contain it.

The Department of Health says all local health and social care systems should have established an integrated continence service by April this year.

See www.continence-foundation.org.uk or ring the helpline on 0845 345 0165 between 9.30am and 1pm Monday to Friday.