Among women ages 30 to 39, Dr. Melville found, 28 percent experienced some loss of urinary control at least once a month.

The most common serious complications of surgery are loss of urinary control and impotence.

If the cancer is clinically unlikely to have spread beyond the prostate, nerve-sparing surgery should be offered to minimize impotency and to speed up urinary control.

The most common serious complications of radical retropubic prostatectomy are loss of urinary control and impotence.

Still, at this point, any man who is undergoing radiation or surgery to treat prostate cancer should expect to develop some problems with urinary control.

Sometimes, Kegel exercises are used in combination with biofeedback, a monitoring system that helps you gain control over bodily processes such as urinary control.

After this phase, the patient may lose bowel or urinary control.

"When there's a problem with urinary control, it is bothersome but not (usually) malignant, though it does interfere with quality of life," Dr. Bird says.

Total incontinence is the continuous and total loss of urinary control.

However, there are some treatments that are less likely to cause incontinence than others, and most patients regain urinary control.