Axonics

Bowel Incontinence Symptoms

You may be suffering from bowel incontinence if:

Fecal Urgency

You experience sudden urges to pass stool

Urgency Fecal Incontinence

You experience an inability to stop the urge to pass stool

Passive Bowel Incontinence

You experience leakage of stool with activity or without awareness

Did you know that patients can suffer from dual incontinence?
Dual incontinence is when a patient is experiencing both bladder and bowel control symptoms.

Your journey to find the treatment solution that works for you

1CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR

Discuss your symptoms
Start a baseline bowel diary
Undergo recommended diagnostic tests
Discuss treatment options

2INITIAL TREATMENT

Diet changes
Sphincter and pelvic floor exercises
Over-the-counter antidiarrheal medications
Pessary

No symptom improvements?
Don’t give up!

Follow up with your doctor to discuss advanced therapy options

3ADVANCED THERAPIES

Minimally Invasive
- Sacral Neuromodulation
Invasive
- Surgical Sphincter Repair

Bowel Incontinence
Patient Care Pathway

Your doctor and his or her clinical team will follow a patient care pathway, which is a roadmap of the different treatment options available to you. The pathway starts with conservative treatments and then moves on to the advanced therapies.

1 2 3

CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR

Initial
Treatment

follow up with
Your doctor

advanced Therapies

Hear From the Experts

Rebecca McCrery, MD, FPMRSUrogynecologist

What options do patients have if they suffer from bowel (fecal) incontinence?

If we think overactive bladder is a hard thing for patients to bring up with a physician, fecal incontinence is even worse. Nobody really wants to bring up the fact that they’re accidentally passing stool. That’s a hard one for people to even bring up with anybody.

We’ve had limited strategies to treat the problem, so we’ll often start with pelvic floor exercises, behavioral modifications, and optimizing fiber. Beyond that, our treatment options have historically been limited. It’s been a challenging condition from a standpoint of getting patients to talk about it. Sacral Neuromodulation is a great proven, long-term treatment option for these patients.

How important is the patient care pathway?

I think it’s really helpful if patients are familiar with the variety of treatment options up front. I think oftentimes, patients will stop seeking care for this problem because it doesn’t seem like there are any other options left. It’s really helpful to give a patient an idea of where we might be going early on, so that they recognize, “Hey, there’s a reason to come back. There’s a reason to continue this. Just because I didn’t get better with step one, doesn’t mean that there’s not another option for me.”

Are your bowel incontinence symptoms disruptive to your daily activities?
Have the freedom to live your life!

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What Is Bowel Incontinence?

Bowel incontinence, or accidental bowel leakage, is a condition where people get sudden urges to pass stool and experience leakage of stool before they make it to the restroom.

Bowel Incontinence Symptoms

Fecal Urgency

Frequency

Urgency Fecal Incontinence

Nocturia

Passive Bowel Incontinence