Activities of Stress Axes in Female and Male Patients with Urge Incontinence

Background/Objectives: Urge incontinence (UI) is a condition defined as the involuntary loss of urine, affecting both women and men. The underlying pathophysiology is not completely understood, but it might involve the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, i.e., two main stress axes of the body. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the association of ANS and HPA axis activities with urge incontinence in female and male genders.

Methods

For this purpose, four groups were established: (i) female patients with UI (n = 57), (ii) female control participants (n = 56), (iii) male patients with UI (n = 57), and (iv) male control participants (n = 57). ANS activity was assessed by heart rate variability (HRV) derived from a 5-min electrocardiogram (ECG) recording, and HPA activity was evaluated by salivary cortisol levels. HRV parameters consisted of both time- and frequency-domain parameters, notably the low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) ratio, which is commonly interpreted as an index of sympathovagal balance.