Heidi Brown, MD, Assistant Professor Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health speaks on the topic of accidental bowel leakage (ABL). ABL is an everyday health topic that more people should know about.
Accidental bowel leakage is surprisingly common, affecting tens of millions of women and men. According to Heidi Brown, MD, ABL is the term that people who have accidental bowel lekage would prefer to use to describe it.
ABL affects all different kinds of peopple. Anybody can have ABL and there things that anybody with ABL can do to make it better.
There are lots of different things that lead to ABL including: inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diabetes, nuerologic problems, radiation to the pelvic floor, or trauma because of either an accident or vaginal birth.
These things don't just happen to old poeple. Less than half of people with ABL have heard of Fecal Incontinence, the medical terminology. Less than half of the people who have ABL haven't even heard of the term. If you say, "Do you have fecal incontinence" to a person with ABL, they are not going to say, "yes". Whereas, if you say, "Do you have accidental bowel leakage", people will say "Oh yeah, that happens to me. I have that!".
Having this new terminology to talk about this condition is going to make it easier for us to start the conversation.
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