For many people with incontinence, the following self-help tips and lifestyle changes are enough to relieve symptoms.
Pelvic floor exercises can be really effective at reducing leakage, but it's important to do them properly. Find out how to do pelvic floor exercises.
You may have to do pelvic floor exercises for three months before you see any benefits.
If you smoke, you put yourself at risk of incontinence, because coughing puts strain on your pelvic floor muscles.
Advice to help you stop smoking is available from your GP or pharmacist.
If you want to go direct, find your nearest NHS Stop Smoking Service from the NHS Smokefree website, or call the Smokefree National Helpline to speak to a trained adviser on 0300 123 1044.
High-impact exercise puts pressure on your pelvic floor muscles and can increase leakage. Sit-ups can also make you leak by straining your pelvic floor muscles.
If you want to strengthen your pelvic floor to relieve symptoms, replace jogging and aerobics classes with pilates. This gentle method of stretching and strengthening core muscles has become more popular as a treatment for stress incontinence.
Lifting puts strain on your pelvic floor muscles, so avoid it wherever you can.
When you do need to lift something, like picking up children or shopping bags, tighten your pelvic floor muscles before and during the lift.
Being overweight can weaken your pelvic floor muscles and can cause incontinence, because of the pressure of fatty tissue on the bladder.
Your symptoms may improve, and could clear up completely, if you lose the excess weight.
To check whether you're a healthy weight, use our healthy weight calculator. Your body mass index (BMI) is a measure of whether you're a healthy weight for your height.
Straining to empty your bowels weakens your pelvic floor muscles and makes leakage worse.
Never delay the urge to empty your bowels. If you have constipation, it may help to change your diet and lifestyle.
Eating more fibre and taking more exercise can help. It may also help if you change the way you sit and use your muscles to empty your bowels. A specialist physiotherapist can advise you on this.
Read more about food and diet.
Caffeine irritates the bladder and can make incontinence worse.
Coffee has the biggest effect, so stop drinking it or switch to decaffeinated.
Fizzy drinks, tea, green tea, energy drinks and hot chocolate also contain caffeine, so cut down on these too and replace them with water and herbal or fruit teas.
Alcohol is a diuretic, which makes you urinate more often. Cutting down may help your incontinence symptoms.
Read more on how to cut down on your drinking.
Drink six to eight glasses of fluid a day (but no more) unless your doctor advises you otherwise.
Many people with urinary incontinence avoid drinking fluids, as they feel it causes more problems. However, limiting your fluid intake makes incontinence worse, because it reduces your bladder's capacity.
Too little fluid can also cause or worsen constipation.
Find out which are the healthiest drinks.
Avoid spicy and acidic foods, such as curries and citrus fruits, as they can irritate the bladder and make leaks and other incontinence symptoms worse.
For more tips, see living with incontinence.