New Help for Incontinence

Millions of women across the country are suffering in silence with a dirty little secret. They wet themselves with the tiniest moves. Now a new procedure is giving them back the control they lost without invasive surgery.

Natasha Stump loves to run, but for years doing it had embarrassing consequences.

"It was out of the question. I would leak on myself," Natasha watts stump, who suffers from urinary incontinence, said.

Natasha is one of the 15 million women in the U.S affected by stress urinary incontinence. Coughing, laughing or sneezing can all lead to an accident.

"If I forgot to wear some protection then I definitely would have to change clothes and it was horrible," Natasha said.

Doctor Royce Adkins says it most commonly occurs after a woman has children. Until now, doctors would surgically implant a mesh "sling" to support the bladder, but a growing number of complaints prompted the FDA to warn against it last summer.

"Because of that many patients are hesitant to have these procedures done," Royce T. Adkins, clinical instructor at Vanderbilt University, said.

That's where a new non-surgical treatment known as Renessa comes in. A catheter is placed at the base of the bladder. Then low heat is applied to the tissue.

"Over the course of 2 or 3 months that collagen begins to get a little bit tighter and this allows the patient to have better control and more continence," Dr. Adkins said.

Clinical studies show 75-percent of women see a significant improvement in their symptoms after 90 days with 60-percent making a full recovery. Patients are in and out of the doctor's office in an hour. Natasha was back to work the next day.

"In a short amount of time I had my life back," she said. "It was life changing."

There are no catheters, bandages or dressings to change with Renessa. Doctor Adkins says it's as easy as going to the dentist. The procedure is covered by most health insurance and Medicare.