Stress urinary incontinence

Common signs

• Leaks when coughing, sneezing or laughing
• Leaks when jumping, during sport or when carrying a load
• No urge to pass urine just before the leak
• Small or moderate amounts of urine lost

What physiotherapy does

Pelvic floor rehabilitation is the first treatment offered for stress incontinence. Carried out by a physiotherapist or a midwife, it aims to strengthen the muscles that form the floor of the pelvis, and the therapist also gives advice on posture and everyday movements. When it is hard to find the right muscles, electrical stimulation, which makes these muscles work using a current, may be offered. Between sessions, practising on your own at home is recommended, because this rehabilitation needs the patient’s active participation.

Techniques used at the practice

Exercises to contract and relax the pelvic floor, breathing work, hypopressive exercises, coordination of the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles, and principles of the de Gasquet method to improve the management of abdominal pressure.

How the sessions go

Assessment of symptoms, breathing, posture and pelvic floor control. A personalised programme combining pelvic floor exercises, hypopressive work and learning the right movements during physical effort.

Advice

Learn to coordinate breathing with pelvic floor contractions, avoid excessive abdominal straining and build the principles of pelvic floor protection into everyday movements.

Sources

1. Incontinence urinaire : mécanisme, fréquence et causes (new tab)Assurance Maladie (ameli.fr), accessed October 26, 2026
2. Le traitement de l'incontinence urinaire (new tab)Assurance Maladie (ameli.fr), accessed October 26, 2026
3. Incontinence urinaire chez l'adulte (new tab)Manuels MSD pour le grand public, accessed October 26, 2026

Page reviewed on October 30, 2026