Incontinence is normally associated with the elderly but that's not always the case.
Women in particular can experience incontinence earlier in life thanks to the beating their lower pelvic floor muscles take during the process of giving birth.
Children sometimes can't seem to complete toilet training and suffer from a condition called nocturnal enuresis that can plague them into their teens and both men and women can suffer from the problem as a result of trauma, surgery, medication or disease.
There are three basic types of incontinence and each has its own therapy regimen so it's important to be able to diagnose which kind you have.
However when the symptoms are mixed, you may be suffering from mixed urinary incontinence.
This condition is most often a combination of stress and urge incontinence.
If your physician diagnoses you with this problem, he or she will most likely treat the most dominant form first and then follow up on the lesser form.
For example if it appears most of the events can be blamed on urge incontinence, then most likely you will be treated with medication to calm down the bladder and end the spasms that are causing the discharge.
When this condition is under control then you can address the exercises designed to strengthen the lower pelvic muscles which in turn will mitigate the stress incontinence.
Obviously the place to start to manage this problem is a trip to your doctor's office.
He may ask you to keep a detailed bladder diary for a period of time tracking the fluids you take in and the times you use the bathroom or have an accident.
Together you can make a determination of the types you suffer from and which one is dominant.
From that point the doctor can take over and spell out a plan of therapy.
Mixed incontinence should not be considered simply a part of the aging process.
You can at the minimum effectively manage it and often times it can be cured.