Incontinence?

[electricdruid.livejournal.com]

I know there's no such thing as a stupid question but sometimes I wonder if this might be one. Not that I'm embarrassed if it is :P

Basically, my question is: how does a girl know if she's suffering from incontinence?

I'm 21, and for much of my pubescent life I've experienced discharge that stains my underwear. Often is is pale yellow, which washes out, but over time it becomes darker, more like a pale brown. Buildup, I suppose. I'm not talking years, here. I'm not keeping my underwear that long. Obviously if I've had it for years and it's stained like that, I'm going to toss it. But if I've only had the pair a few months... 

I know every woman is different, but my mother likes to declare that my "stains" are so dark and she never had any discharge like that and there must be something wrong with either me or the way I wear my underwear (her suggestion is to change my panties twice as often. She also told me to buy only dark underwear so that this doesn't happen anymore. Which is false, of course. It'll still happen, I just won't see it). My boyfriend occasionally gets uncomfortable about it when we're doing laundry at his place and asks me to throw out some of the worst offenders, telling me that when he was a kid he did his family's underwear and never noticed this with his mom's or sister's undies (TMI?).

Anyway, so I've got to thinking- what if I'm experiencing incontinence? How do I know if this is a drop or two of urine, or if it's regular discharge? Would urine be likely to color underwear in this way? Would discharge?

Comments

[mandy.livejournal.com]

My mom and I are actually similar in that we both have a lot of discharge that gets all over our underwear. However she chooses to put on panty liners every day for the issue, something I found a little embarrassing/strange as a teen because I thought those were only used during one's period! But I bet you my mom has salvaged many more pairs of underwear than me because I let my undies get stained :/

I still do not use liners and sometimes I feel like I should, just for the sake of my underwear, but it's that or getting a rash in my groin from the constant friction from the cotton liners (verrrry uncomfortable; I can only wear them for as long as my period lasts...any longer and I get itchy and a rash). Your issue sounds very normal to me! Already numerous comments here have spoken about being in the same position. And I too was very self-conscious about my boyfriend seeing my stained underwear, still am to a degree, but if he ever makes an insensitive comment about it so help him! I'm sure he'd appreciate a rant and a long explanation about how my vag is fine and normal and all about the discharge :P