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A Cure for Incontinence
One Woman's Story of Hope
By Lyn Mettler
Jaki Nett knows what it's like to live with incontinence. She knows it consumes every waking moment. She knows it means staying on the lookout for the nearest bathroom. She knows how choosing an outfit for the day becomes less about what you want to wear and more about what's most likely to hide embarrassing leaks.
But although Nett has lived with urinary incontinence for years, she found a way out – a unique method called Felt Sense that she developed for strengthening the pelvic muscles.
When Nett, now 59 and a yoga teacher in St. Helena, Calif., was diagnosed with uterine fibroids, she was determined not to have surgery to remove them. Instead, she wanted to try healing them holistically with the help of her Iyengar yoga practice. She tried herbs, acupuncture, acupressure and other remedies, but her fibroids continued to grow. She was plagued by side effects including intense pain, a lack of interest in sex and a growing inability to hold her urine.
"I knew where every bathroom was," says Nett, who is known for her openness and frankness about discussing the subject of incontinence. "I learned how to pee in cups and bottles. I dressed to pee."
It was the impact on her mode of dress that was particularly upsetting, she says. Nett, a former Playboy Bunny, was very concerned with how she looked and dressed, and suddenly she had to wear loose-fitting clothes to hide stains. Still, she refused to give in to wearing a bulky pad. "I'd worked too long to wear thongs to end up wearing a pad," she says.
Nett finally decided to try surgery for some relief and found a doctor who would perform the operation without removing her ovaries. The surgery was successful, but it took Nett a while to get back to her normal self. Unfortunately, continence was not something that came along with her healing. Over the years, she tried many of the recommended treatments for incontinence, including a device that shocks the muscles of the vagina, Kegel exercises, vaginal weights and more, but nothing worked.
Want to see more?
- When Laughing Makes You Leak: Fast Facts About Stress Urinary Incontinence
- Active Living: Managing Urinary Incontinence
- Staying Active, Controlling Incontinence: A Primer for Men and Women
- Breathe In, Breathe Out: The Art of Yoga
- The Art of a Kegel
- Turn up the Heat! Reshape Your Body With Hot Yoga
- Talk about it!
