Many women have been there or know women who have: You’re laughing to the point of tears, or you’re jumping up and down during a workout, when suddenly…oops.

Leaking urine, especially as we age, happens to a lot of women from time to time. The question is when it means something more.

Urinary incontinence, or UI, is the clinical term for involuntary urine loss. Some women call it “a weak bladder” or “bladder leakage” — different words, same condition. It ranges from the occasional drop to a complete loss of bladder control.

UI can affect women of any age. It’s often linked to hormonal shifts like menopause, to childbirth, or to injury affecting the pelvic floor, the group of muscles and tissue that support the pelvic organs. Left untreated, it tends to progress over time, even when it seems to come and go week to week. And it grows more common with age: a meaningful share of women see symptoms in their 30s, and a majority do by their 80s.

UI is common. Tens of millions of women in the U.S. deal with it, and hundreds of millions worldwide. That doesn’t make it something to simply live with. The unpredictability of UI can take a real toll — on mental health, on relationships, on whether someone feels comfortable going to the gym or a social event. There’s a financial cost too. Pads, protective garments, extra laundry: it adds up to real money over a year.

And yet many women still don’t do anything about it. Some are embarrassed to bring it up. Others have tried Kegels here and there without much success and assumed that’s just how it is. The truth is, doing Kegels occasionally at a stoplight isn’t the same as an actual training program, and the difference in results is significant.

Pelvic floor muscle training, or PFMT, is a structured program of exercises followed consistently over several weeks or months. Women who complete one are substantially more likely to see real improvement than those who try to manage things on their own.

There’s more than one way to get started. A specialized pelvic health provider, such as a physical therapist or occupational therapist, can offer hands-on instruction and a program built around your specific symptoms. A few directories worth checking: the PT Locator from the APTA Academy of Abdominal and Pelvic Health, the Herman & Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute Provider Directory, and the Pelvic Guru Provider Directory.

A healthcare provider may also point you toward a home program, and there are apps and connected devices that can help with consistency. Quality varies a lot here, so look for something FDA-cleared and backed by clinical data. Axena Health’s Leva Pelvic Health System is one option, using real-time visualization of muscle movement to guide women through each session.

Beyond training, small things help too: quitting smoking, keeping a healthy weight, staying active, and paying attention to what’s in the diet, since caffeine, alcohol and carbonated drinks can all aggravate symptoms.

If UI is affecting your life, it doesn’t have to stay that way. This quiz is a quick way to get a clearer sense of where things stand. From there, a conversation with a healthcare provider is the best next step — treatment options, including several drug-free and non-surgical ones, are more available now than ever.