Coleen Nolan is used to talking about every subject under the sun with her fellow Loose Women panellists. And now there’s another topic which is not off limits – bladder leakage.
“We have talked about it among ourselves,” says Coleen, 59. “We’ll say, ‘Oh my God, I wet myself at that yesterday’ or ‘I nearly wet myself today laughing at that topic.
“After the show when we are back in our dressing rooms, we talk about it, doing our debrief. I love the fact that you don’t have to feel alone with it.”
Coleen has experienced leakage problems since having her first child at 23. And over the decades she has had moments where she has wet herself – following sneezing, laughing or coughing.
“My bladder issues were from having my first child really,” she says. “When you are younger, and they are going on at you about doing your pelvic floor exercises, you say ‘yeah, whatever’. I’d do them, but not regularly, and then three children later you think ‘maybe I should have done them when I was told’.”
As an ambassador for Always Discreet, who make products for people with sensitive bladders, and says she has come to understand how widespread it is. “One in three women experience bladder leaks,” says Coleen. “And it’s 100% not associated with old age.
“I’ve met women from their early twenties through to my age and above who have all experienced it at some time. Bladder leaks are very common. It’s something that we need to stop being embarrassed about. They just happen.
“It’s not an everyday occurrence with me, it’s if you sneeze, cough or laugh. Laughing is a big one. I go out with my friends and we all say ‘Don’t make me laugh or I’ll wee’.”
Bladder leakage, or urinary incontinence, can be caused by weakened muscles, nerve damage, certain medications and certain food and drink. And it can be debilitating for some people – Always Discreet research showed that 87 per cent of UK women said bladder leaks disrupted their daily activities, 50 per cent said it was a source of embarrassment and anxiety, and 48 per cent said it was a taboo subject. Coleen wants to change that.
She discusses bladder leakage with her sisters and is open in front of her children, Shane, 36, and Jake, 32 from her marriage to EastEnders’ star Shane Richie and daughter Ciara, 23, from her marriage to guitarist Ray Fensome.
“The lovely thing I’ve got with my sons and my daughter is we talk about everything. We’ve talked about periods in front of the boys. I wish I had had more of that as a child.
“My mum didn’t talk about anything. She had eight children and I didn’t even know about periods. I found out about them because of my older sisters. She was of that era when private stuff stayed private.”
In the survey, 94% of women said they did not do pelvic floor exercises as regularly as they should. Research shows that doing three lots of strengthening exercises every day can help to reduce or even prevent you having bladder leaks.
Coleen says she has been incorporating her pelvic floor exercises into her daily routine. “You don’t have to give up any time of your day to do them. I can do them while I’m mucking the horses out, feeding the animals or making a cup of tea. And no one knows you are doing them. It’s just getting into the habit.
“It’s retraining a muscle. As long as you are tensing your muscles they are going to build up. It’s like starting at a gym, all of a sudden, you are going to see the difference it makes.”
It’s not the only thing that is making a difference in her life. “In lockdown, me and my daughter went plant-based and that has made a massive difference,” says Coleen. “I was on painkillers and she had a lot of women’s issues that weren’t going away. We watched a couple of documentaries and decided to give it a try.
“Within two weeks I was off painkillers and all her issues stopped. It was incredible how fast it helped just by cutting out meat and dairy.”
In June last year, Coleen moved to a smallholding in Staffordshire where she has a menagerie of animals including horses, ducks, chickens, cats, dogs and pygmy goats. Her daughter Ciara lives on site in an annexe.
“Ciara is vegan and I’m 100 per cent vegetarian and 80 per cent vegan, only because of the amount of travelling I do. It was for health reasons initially as I loved meat and dairy but then I thought ‘I can’t have all these animals running around and then sit down and eat a chicken’.
“The thing with animals is even if you wake up and think, ‘I’m really down today’, you can’t have a duvet day because they are all looking at you demanding ‘feed me, walk me, groom me!’. It forces you out of that situation and of course fresh air and exercise are amazing for your mental health.”
Another issue Coleen wants to tackle this year is her skin. “I’ve got a couple of pre-melanoma skin cancers that the doctors said will be an issue later in life, but I don’t want to wait as an auntie passed away because of skin cancer a couple of years ago.
“I have two little marks – one on my nose and one on my cheek. The doctors said they are pre-melanomas from [sun exposure in] my childhood. It’s really common in people my age.
“Back in the 1960s and 1970s no one bothered with suncream. I used to be out all day playing. I burned and I’ve got really pale, freckly Irish skin. I never sit in the sun now, I’m always under a shade.”
It’s clear, despite a hectic life travelling between Staffordshire and London for work, looking after herself is a priority for Coleen. “I’m 60 this year,” she says. “I’m going to try and carry on being as healthy as I can.”
■ Always Discreet has partnered with Coleen Nolan on its Squeeze the Day campaign which aims to encourage all women to make bladder leak prevention and management part of their daily routine.
