PMSL: Or How I Literally Pissed Myself Laughing and Survived the Last Taboo to Tell the Tale

'Warm, generous and genuinely useful' - Lynn Enright, author of Vagina: A re-education
'No better person to finally illuminate this last taboo than Luce Brett' - Milli Hill, author of The Positive Birth Book
'A breath of fresh air' - Anna Williamson, presenter, broadcaster and bestselling author of Breaking Mad
'If you have a bladder you should read this. If you work with people with bladders you should definitely read this' - Elaine Miller, Pelvic health physiotherapist and stand-up comedian
'A feminist roar of a health memoir ... a stigma-busting, generous, funny, moving book about an important subject' - David Nicholls, author of One Day
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When Luce Brett became incontinent at the age of 30, after the birth of her first son, she felt her life had ended. She also felt scared, upset, embarrassed, dirty and shocked. How the hell had she ended up there, the youngest woman in the waiting room at the incontinence clinic?
PMSL is her story. A heartfelt, moving and deeply personal account of the decade that followed, told with incredible honesty and wit. Luce has been at the sharp end of a medical issue that affects 1 in 3 women but that remains shrouded in taboo and social stigma.
It's sincere, raw and funny - but crucially it is the first memoir to look at incontinence, smashing the stigma and looking at what anyone affected can do to navigate their way through the wet-knickered wilderness.

Luce Brett was born in 1977 and learned about her nether regions from More! magazine, other peoples' big sisters, Tampax leaflets and her mother's copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves.
She became incontinent after the birth of her first child. She has spoken about her condition in print, online and on national radio, most recently on BBC Radio's The Naked Podcast, where she stripped with the hosts to talk about how leaking affected everything from her ability to enjoy a party to her sex life. She hopes this book will help other people speak up and start the conversation about continence.

Introduction by Elaine Miller
Prologue: The Beginning - How did I get here?
Part One: Pregnancy and childbirth
1 Speaking up
2 Childbirth - Expectations
3 Childbirth - Reality
4 Coming home
5 Six-week check
6 Damage assessment
Part Two: Aftermath - Who am I now?
7 Depression
8 Survival
9 Booze
10 Starting again
11 Pelvis
Part Three: Round 2 - Back for more
12 Childbirth - Again
13 Physiotherapy
14 Urogynaecology
15 History
16 Surgery
Part Four: The final taboos
17 Potty training
18 Poo
19 Stigma
20 Sex
Part Five: Lessons
21 Feminism
22 PMSL
23 Men
24 Medics
25 Coping
Epilogue - The Ending: How did I get here?
What if you are leaky too?
Talking to doctors about your private parts - written with GP Rachel Boyce
Getting help and information for a broken body
Getting help and information for a broken mind
References
Acknowledgements
Index