Urinary incontinence: why women do not ask for help.

During the past decade, many medical conditions previously thought to be unmentionable are now being talked about more openly. Breast cancer, for example, has had a great deal of media attention, particularly when women in the public eye reveal that they have been diagnosed with it. This publicity helps to increase awareness of the condition. In comparison with breast cancer, the common female problem of urinary incontinence receives scant attention in the media, yet it has been estimated that there may be 4,000,000 women in the UK suffering from urinary incontinence at one time (Hunskaar et al, 2004).