Gemma Collins has admitted she thought she was pregnant and her waters broke after struggling with incontinence while jumping on a trampoline.
The former TOWIE star, 43, shared her battle with the common ailment during an interview on Friday’s This Morning.
Gemma admitted she ‘broke down in tears’ and feared she ‘was going to die’ after going to the toilet and ‘seeing water’ following an incontinence leak. She added that her pelvic floor exercises were ‘crucial’ to her recovery.
Although women usually experience urinary incontinence after childbirth, it can also be caused by other factors, such as weight gain and constipation.
Gemma told presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary that she first realized she had incontinence while visiting a trampoline park with her cousin Haydn and stepson Tristan, whose father is her fiancé Rami Hawash.
Gemma Collins has admitted she thought she was pregnant and her waters broke after struggling with incontinence while jumping on a trampoline
She said, “I’m starting to jump. Suddenly the floodgates open. I’m sitting in the air thinking: am I going to die?’
“I don’t want to ruin the kids’ day. I’m soaking wet and this is just shocking. So I went to the toilet and it was water. And then I thought, ‘I’m going to die. I need surgery. Something’s happened to me.’”
“I jump in the air and think, ‘Am I pregnant and will the water break?’ I feel so ashamed. I haven’t even had children yet.’
‘So I was beside myself. I remember going home. My fiance wanted to go to dinner that evening. I just felt so down. I went to the bathroom. I started to cry. I thought, my life is over. It was just so bad.”
‘Then of course I did my research and 1 in 55% of women in the UK experience this. All shapes, all sizes, all ages. It’s an eye opener for me too. It affects the self-confidence of so many women.
“And like me, when I go on vacation, I want to do what the kids do. I want to get on the jet ski and, you know, be that fun person that I am.
‘But living with the fear that people have on a daily basis has really affected my self-confidence.’
Despite fears she might need surgery to correct the problem, Gemma confirmed she has significantly reduced her incontinence with regular pelvic floor exercises.
The TOWIE star admitted she ‘burst into tears’ and feared she was ‘going to die’ after going to the bathroom and ‘seeing water’ following an incontinence leak
She said, “I’m starting to jump. Suddenly the floodgates open. I’m in the air and I think, am I going to die?’
Although urinary incontinence most often affects women after childbirth, it can also be caused by other pressures, such as weight gain and constipation
Despite fears she might need surgery to treat the problem, Gemma said on This Morning on Friday that she has significantly reduced her incontinence through regular pelvic floor exercises
She said: ‘I was in Benidorm two days ago. I was laughing my head off. There’s a little bit coming out but it doesn’t look like it normally would’
‘I have reversed my incontinence by almost 95% by doing my pelvic floor exercises.
‘I was in Benidorm two days ago. I laughed my head off. A little bit comes out, but it doesn’t look like it normally would.’
Urinary incontinence is common and affects an estimated seven million women in Britain, although accurate statistics are difficult to come by because so many women are reluctant to talk about their problem.
It can occur at any time, but it becomes more common as one gets older.
‘What Gemma is experiencing is something called stress incontinence, caused by a weakening of the pelvic floor beneath her bladder, bowel and womb, causing urine to leak out,’ Myra Robson, a pelvic physiotherapist at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, previously told MailOnline in 2023.
This usually happens as a result of childbirth. The weight of carrying a baby weakens the pelvic floor, the hammock-like band of muscle that runs from the pelvic bone in the front to the tailbone in the back and helps keep the bladder entrance tightly closed. When you are under pressure, such as during a coughing fit, urine can leak.
While it is a common problem among mothers, it can also affect women like Gemma who do not have children.
Chronic constipation, severe coughing, significant weight gain over a long period of time and lifting heavy weights at the gym can also cause this, explains Myra Robson.
These all cause pressure in the abdomen, which in turn puts pressure on the bladder and, ‘unless the pelvic floor provides the necessary support’, this can lead to leaks, adds Gill Davey, a continence nurse for Bladder Health UK.
“Gemma’s experience is very common,” she says. ‘The problem can worsen with age and especially after menopause, when the body no longer naturally produces the estrogen that helps strengthen the pelvic floor, which is wrapped around the urethra. [the tube that exits the bladder] and has an opening and closing mechanism known as the sphincter.
‘When the firmness of the pelvic floor is weakened due to a lack of estrogen, this is the case [the sphincter] will not always close efficiently.’
The cause in Gemma’s case is not clear.
In 2015, then aged 34, she underwent a much-publicised non-surgical procedure to rejuvenate her labia – a “designer vagina” – but was assured that, as a cosmetic treatment, it had no effect on her pelvic floor.
How to protect your pelvic floor
Pelvic floor exercises involve squeezing and lifting your pelvic floor. It should feel like you’re going to fart in a social situation, and you’re tightening the muscles around your anus to help prevent embarrassing situations, says pelvic floor physiotherapist Myra Robson.
“Or imagine stopping halfway through urination, as if you were taking a urine test.”
There are two types of pelvic floor exercises, she explains.
‘First a slow one, holding for about ten seconds, relaxing in between and repeating ten times.
“The fast one involves squeezing and releasing at a rate of one per second, again ten times. All adult women should exercise their pelvic floor three times a day for the rest of their lives.”
But if for some reason you can’t feel your muscles when you do these exercises or you experience pain or discomfort, she recommends seeing a pelvic physio through a referral from your GP.
Or download the Squeezy app, created by physiotherapists and available for €2.99 on iPhone and Android.
And try to protect your pelvic floor. Continence nurse Gill Davey is keen to stress the importance of good urination habits to reduce the strain on it.
“Make sure you empty your bladder completely,” she says. “Drink lots of water throughout the day to keep everything functioning properly.
‘Even if you want to empty your bowels, you should not strain as this can damage those areas and loosen the pelvic floor.’