Stress Incontinence Among Other Concerns For Women

Title:
Stress Incontinence: Among Other Concerns for Women

Word Count:
501

Summary:
Stress incontinence is the most common form of urinary problem among women. It is experience by women who have had children and those who are overweight and obese. There are a lot of factors which can result to this kind of disorder. This article relates the symptoms, causes and prevention for urinary incontinence.


Keywords:
urinary problem, stress, overweight and obese, relationships, well-being


Article Body:
Does coughing, sneezing, or laughing too much cause you to leak urine? You might be experiencing a urinary problem which is the most common form of incontinence in women. Incontinence is defined as an involuntary loss of urine that is enough to cause a social or hygiene concern. Urine is produced by the kidneys and collected in the bladder, which expands like a balloon as the volume increases. When full, the bladder empties itself by releasing the urine via the urethra. Most people need to pass water every three to four hours during the day and up to once or twice in the night. For normal urination, the muscular wall of the bladder has to contract at the same time as a valve mechanism at the outlet of the bladder relaxes.

However, urine tends to leak most when one coughs, during intense laughter, or when doing exercise such as jumping or running. In these kinds of situations, there is a sudden extra pressure within the abdomen and on the bladder. Urine leaks because the pelvic floor muscles and urethra cannot withstand the extra pressure. The incontinence develops because the pelvic floor muscles are weakened, reducing the person's ability to hold the urine and prevent the leak. Stress incontinence is when urine leaks when there is a sudden extra pressure or “stress” on the bladder.

Stress incontinence is common in women who have had children and those who are overweight and obese. It is also more common with increasing age as the muscles become weaker, particularly after the menopause. Women experience incontinence two times more often than men. Pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, and the structure of the female urinary tract account for this difference. Stress incontinence can worsen during the week before a woman's menstrual period. During that time, low estrogen levels might lead to lower muscular pressure around the urethra, increasing chances of leakage. The incidence of stress incontinence increases following menopause. By the age of 75, at least 16% of women experience some incontinence, but younger women can also be affected.

If a woman experiences stress incontinence, she may feel embarrassed and distressed by the condition. It often disrupts work, social activities, interpersonal relationships, and even sexual relations. But stress incontinence is a preventable disorder. Healthy lifestyle choices that may reduce the risk or lessen complications of the disorder include a regular exercise routine, weight management, and limited consumption of caffeine and alcohol.
The main treatment which often works well is to do exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Pelvic floor exercises may include the use of incontinence-control devices as directed by a physician. In some cases medication may help in addition to exercises if exercises alone do not work. Surgery may also be recommended in order to tighten or support the bladder outlet. Following a doctor's advice is important for managing overactive bladder. Talk to a doctor if the symptoms of stress incontinence interfere with the activities of daily living, such as work, interpersonal relationships, social life and general well-being.

BONUS : Title:
Stress in the Call Center Industry

Word Count:
580

Summary:
A closer look at the stressful environment in the call center industry and ways to find solutions and strategies on how to eliminate or lessen job burn out.


Keywords:
Stress management


Article Body:
The customers are the lifeblood of any company. The company is dependent on their customers and not the other way around. So a customer is treated like a king or a queen and, as the saying goes, “The customer is always right.” And for this reason alone, many companies see the value of having a customer service department that can address the needs and complaints of every customer on a full-time basis. A call center agent plays a very important role. The agent serves as a link and that agent can be doing on-line reservations, do technical support, facilitate an ordered product, or provide directory assistance.

Depending on how many phone calls are received some companies need a lot of employees to handle the large volume of these calls. Their main task is to take calls and do problem-solving for the customers then move on the next customer that is waiting in line. Sometimes, a call center agent couldn't even catch his or her own breath especially during the “peak” hours. On a very busy day, a customer service agent would take more than 100 phone calls depending also the length of each call on their given work.

Depending on the kind of work they do for their respective companies, its not just taking a call from a customer but a Customer Service agent (CSR) will be doing multi-tasking work of inputing data on the specialize software in their computers. But despite computer automation, it is putting so much strain and later on stressed for the agent as they keep this routine everyday. It is not easy taking calls from angry and demanding customers and be a problem solver at the same time.

A sign that a customer service agent is already stressed out from his/her work are the following:

l Social withdrawal
l Decline in Quality Assurance for an extended periods
l Frequent absences and/or lates
l Negative comments regarding the account and nature of the work
l Frequent and inconsistent complaints about management

Call center agents might not have the best work life, this may vary from company to company, there are tracking software and metrics to analyze all calls like how long does it take to resolve a particular problem and how long the customer should wait. That job can be really taxing and indeed its been a fact among call center industries that it is stressful environment and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible as training a call center agent can be costly and all must focused on retaining a workforce.



Stress Management Strategies

There are still some ways to make your call center agents stay on top of the stressful situations that come everyday. Some tips to do this include the following:

l Find out what motivates them and how to boost their morale
l Ways to recognize and reward employees
l Improving agent job satisfaction
l Create Employee Development Programs
l Create opportunities for advancement
l Making their workstations more pleasant to used and look at

Ever if there are sophisticated automated systems available, there is still no substitute for human interaction when it comes to customer service. Superior service is not just directed to your customers but also to call center agents who serve as front liners of the company. Therefore, having an open-door policy and free-flowing communications between the agent and the management are necessary to find solutions on how to combat stress in the call center arena.