This leaflet is just a brief summary of incontinence. Another
leaflet describes incontinence in more detail and there are
other leaflets on urge incontinence, stress incontinence, and
enuresis (bedwetting). Understanding urine and the bladder The
kidneys make urine all the time. A trickle of urine is
constantly passing to the bladder down the ureters (tubes from
the kidneys to the bladder). You make different amounts of urine
depending on how much you drink, eat and sweat. The bladder is
mainly made of muscle and stores the urine. It expands like a
balloon as urine comes down the ureters. The outlet for urine
(the urethra) is normally kept closed. This is helped by the
muscles beneath the bladder that sweep around the urethra (the
pelvic floor muscles). When a certain amount of urine is in the
bladder you become aware that the bladder is getting full. When
you go to the toilet to pass urine, the bladder muscle contracts
(squeezes) and the urethra and pelvic floor muscles relax.
Complex nerve messages are sent