NHG-standaard ‘Incontinentie voor urine bij vrouwen’

• The Dutch College of General Practitioners’ (NHG) practice guideline ‘Urinary incontinence in women’ provides guidelines for diagnosis and management of stress, urgency and mixed urinary incontinence in adult women.
• General practitioners (GPs) should be alert to signals for urinary incontinence in women and offer active diagnosis and treatment if necessary.
• Shared decision making is central in the guideline; the GP and the patient should discuss therapeutic options and decide on treatment policy in mutual consultation.
• Women with stress urinary incontinence can choose between pelvic floor exercises or a pessary as initial treatment. Placing a midurethral sling (MUS) will be discussed if initial treatment is insufficiently effective or in the case of serious symptoms.
• When bladder training is ineffective in urgency incontinence, the GP will discuss the pros and cons of adding an anticholinergic agent.
• Exercise therapy can take place in the GPs practice or under supervision of a pelvic physical therapist.

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: none declared.