By Ian Holland, Information Officer, Continence Foundation,

A woman is visiting her GP. Although she has been there many times before, she is ill at ease on this occasion. After exchanging a few pleasantries, she steels herself for a moment, then tells him that she is leaking whenever she coughs or lifts her shopping or picks up her grandchildren. She has had the problem for years, she tells him, but it has become much worse during the last few months. The doctor leans back in his chair. “Well,” he says, “You’re 50, you’ve had three children – what do you expect?”