Overcoming Challenges in Overactive Bladder: The Role of Patient-Centric Care

Announcer:
You’re listening to Clinician’s Roundtable on ReachMD. On this episode, sponsored by Sumitomo Pharma, Dr. Wayne Kuang will discuss common challenges and gaps in care for male patients living with overactive bladder. Not only is Dr. Kuang a men's health urologist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but he’s also the CEO of MD for Men and founder of the ManVsProstate Crusade. Here’s Dr. Kuang now.

Dr. Kuang:
A recent survey through the National Health and Nutrition Survey found that 1 in 7 guys are suffering from overactive bladder, and to give that perspective, 1 in 8 men are going to suffer from prostate cancer, and we hear about that all the time. When was the last time anyone heard about overactive bladder for men? It is a growing issue that we all need to begin to collaborate on to try and increase its awareness and understand chronic management strategies. And how do we help all these men who are suffering from it? To give a little bit more detail, 1 in 3 men are suffering from overactive bladder who are 60 years and older. That’s 1 in 3. That’s a tremendous number, and we really need to start working together to reduce this burden on physicians and patients as well as healthcare systems.

Probably the easiest way to approach this is to think about what the challenge is for every man in this day and age. One is cost, and if you’re in stage 3—overactive bladder with urge incontinence—and you’re leaking down your leg because you can’t control those bladder spasms, and you’re requiring diapers, for example, we know that the cost of diapers is tremendous. Some estimates are 100 to 200 dollars a month–that’s 1,000 to 2,000 dollars potentially or more per year. That is very costly.

But what about the other elements of a man’s vitality that have to be sacrificed as they suffer through overactive bladder and urge incontinence–stage 2 and stage 3? Well, think about it. If you have urgency, frequency, peeing every 30 minutes, every couple hours, there’s anxiety in having to find a bathroom every time you go to the supermarket to go buy groceries. There’s the exhaustion of getting up 3 or 4 times a night, and you can’t be who you need to be to all the people you love the next day because you’re simply exhausted. And then there’s the shame and the embarrassment when you’re leaking down your leg.

It’s very inconvenient, and so many men are hiding in the shadows, and we need to come together—pharmaceuticals, industry, academics, community doctors—to unite, to support this crusade to combat overactive bladder stage 2 and urge incontinence stage 3.

Announcer:
You’ve been listening to Clinician’s Roundtable, and this episode was sponsored by Sumitomo Pharma. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit Clinician’s Roundtable on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!