New Consumer Resources About Managing Stress Urinary Incontinence

Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission and Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora have released two new consumer resources about managing stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

The 'Understanding and managing urinary incontinence' and 'Surgery for stress urinary incontinence' guides will replace previous SUI resources.

Te Tāhū Hauora clinical director, Martin Thomas, said the guides had been endorsed by the Surgical Mesh Roundtable (MRT), an oversight and monitoring group chaired by the Ministry of Health which in August 2023 supported a pause in the use of surgical mesh for SUI.

Development of the guides was one of four conditions of lifting the pause on the use of surgical mesh.

The guides aim to provide detailed information about SUI and its management and were developed with input from health care professionals and consumers, including some with lived experience of SUI, Dr Thomas says.

"It is the Surgical Mesh Roundtable’s expectation the guides will now be used by health care professionals when discussing with patients’ options in the treatment of urinary incontinence," he said.

The guides provided clearer, more detailed information than had been previously available, Ministry of Health Chief Medical Officer, Joe Bourne, said.

"Spaces in the guides to note questions or concerns to raise with health care providers will allow patients to work with health care teams to make informed decisions about the best treatment for them, or whether or not to undergo surgical treatment," Dr Bourne said.

The guides are available on the Health New Zealand website: https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/for-health-professionals/clinical-guidance/diseases-and-conditions/female-incontinence/patient-decision-guides

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