Daily Express Tuesday, July 30, 2019 29DX1STGet in touch!
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yourhealth
Edited by AMY PACKER
Health Journalist of the YearF
OR Luisa Zissman, it
was one of the most
embarrassing moments of
her life. And she’s appeared
on The Apprentice. While
performing a fitness test to
qualify for a charity horse race, she
lost control of her bladder.
“I was doing my ‘bleep test’
where you run back and forth
between two beeps which get faster
and faster and honestly I had no
control,” admits the 32-year-old
from Hertfordshire.
“I wet myself to the point
you could see it. There was no
pretending, it was a full-on wet
patch front and back, in front of 20
people – including a television film
crew with the cameras rolling.
“That was probably one of the
most embarrassing things that has
ever happened to me publicly but
I’m so competitive I didn’t want to
stop running because I didn’t want
to fail the test. All I could say was
‘I’ve had three kids.’
“I had full-on peed myself and
couldn’t stop but I just had to try to
front it out and said, ‘Guys, we’ve
all seen Paula Radcliffe do it on TV’.
I had worn two pairs of pants and a
pad and it still came through. It
wasn’t a great day.”
L
UISA first experienced
urinary incontinence when
she was pregnant with her
third child, Clementine, who is now
18 months old. “I had morning
sickness and when I puked I would
pee myself. At the time I thought it
was the weight of the baby just
pushing down but about
three months after she was
born I got a sickness bug
and it happened again.
“I think having a third
baby tipped me over the
edge. After Dixie, who is
nine, I was fine but I got
pregnant with Clementine
when my second baby,
Indigo, was only five months
old and she was the trickiest
birth. She got stuck and the
consultant had to
manipulate her to get
her out.
“I don’t know if my
problem is caused by trauma
because of that or just having
two consecutive babies very
quickly but now whether I’m
sneezing, laughing or running
I pee myself. The only forms
of exercise I can do without
wetting myself are pilates and
horse riding.”
It’s a relief for the Celebrity
Big Brother star that she hasn’t
had to give up her horse due to the
problem – she’s been riding since
she was four years old and this
August is taking part in the
Magnolia Cup, a charity horse race
at Goodwood, to raise funds for
Wellbeing of Woman. “I’m proud to
be racing for such an amazing
charity,” she says.
“They do loads of research into
urinary incontinence and chatting
to them about my issue has been
interesting. From what I heard when
I visited their offices, Botox might
even be able to help me.” Luisa iscertainly not alone in
experiencing this problem.
Incontinence is a
significant issue for
approximately three
million women in the UK.
Six weeks after
pregnancy, 33 per cent of
women report urinary
incontinence and
one in three will
suffer from urinary
incontinence at some
point in their lives.
“I’m quite open about my
problem now. I feel like loads of
women suffer but don’t talk about
it because it’s embarrassing.
“Once, while making my podcast,
Loose Lips, I laughed so much that
my co-host Anna Williamson
thought I’d lost control of my
bowels as well. But it was where I
had peed so much it had made myfake tan run, which had stained my
clothes. I had to go and change.”
While she has used gadgets to try
to solve the problem, Luisa is
only just starting to have proper
medical investigations.
“I’ve seen a doctor now, Linda
Cardozo, who is professor of
urogynaecology at King’s College
Hospital,” she reveals. “She’s a
leading doctor and says I’ve a weak
pelvic floor and need further tests.
“I’ve got to go under general
anaesthetic to have a biopsy, a
cystoscopy and a load of other
things. To be honest, I’ve just
been too busy to book it but I
desperately need to have it done.”
The entrepreneur, who launched
her own cupcake business, says
she can’t help but feel let down by
the care she received when she had
her babies.
“No one mentioned my bladderto me when I had my girls. I was
told to do my pelvic floor exercises
but no one said, ‘You are going to
pee yourself after you have kids’.
“They seem to omit that but I
haven’t got any friends who didn’t
suffer from this problem once
they’d given birth.
“It’s normal – we need to be less
British about things and be open
about the issue. We focus so much
on what we look like but women
need to sort their insides out.”● For more information about the
Magnolia Cup Charity Race on
August 1, go to goodwood.com/
horseracing/qatar-goodwood-
festival/magnolia-cup. Wellbeing of
Woman is a health charity
investing in pioneering medical
research to keep women well
at each stage of life
(wellbeingofwomen.org.uk).We need
to be less
British
about
bladder
weakness
Childbirth left The
Apprentice star with
an embarrassing
problem, she tells
AMY PACKER
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“I’mquiBUMPY RIDE:
Despite her
problems,
Luisa still
enjoys time
with her horseLUISA ZISSMAN EXCLUSIVE
Pictures: CHARLIE SAWYER