Male Incontinence Products

No one wants to really talk about male incontinence products but, it's a fact of life that there are men who become incontinent and need a little help in the underwear department. Male incontinence actually doesn't occur as often as female incontinence. The NIH Prevalence of Urinary Incontinence Study shows that incontinence rates increase sharply with age with severe incontinence taking the lead after menopause to about 3-17% of women. After the age of 70, this rate becomes much higher. Now, men have it easy, considering. Only 3-11% of men overall suffer from male incontinence and of those incontinent men, 40-80% have urge incontinence.

As our population has aged male incontinence products have evolved to better existing products and put more products on the market. I hope to show you some of the newest and best male incontinence products available today.

P.S. "Incontinence" can be both urinary or fecal. For the purposes of this Squidoo article, I'm sticking with the "urinary" definition....

Created: 25FEB13

Photo credit: All photos not associated with products are of my own elderly parents. No, dear Dad didn't need male incontinence products (thankfully) but he was really really cute.

There are many causes of male incontinence, including those documented below:

1. Temporary male incontinence may be caused by foods or liquids. Remember the football game when you drank one too many beers? Now you know what it feels like to be a 54 year old woman...

   Caffeine is both a diuretic (makes you go) and a bladder stimulant - great...just great...

2. Some medications can cause incontinence. Such medications include:

   1. Antidepressants such as Tofranil or Elavil (seems like an oxymoron that something that's supposed to make you feel cheerier introduces something that can bum you out)

   2. Diuretics such as hydrochlorothiazide or hydralazine. Diuretics work by ridding excess water from your body and, well, you know where the excess water goes.

   3. Sleeping pills. Sleeping pills can put you to sleep so deeply that you aren't awakened when your bladder is.

3. Females are not the only ones who get urinary tract infections (UTIs). If the male incontinence was sudden onset, get thee to a doctor. UTIs may be the culprit and a course of antibiotics might fix you right up.
4. The dreaded "P" word - Prostate. Ok, men, listen up. You know that delightful physical yearly checkup your woman is making you get? There's a reason for that. An enlarged prostate can be the root of all evils. That checkup can discover Prostatitis, Bladder Cancer, Prostate Cancer or Neurologic disorders.

Absorbent pads

If your male friend prefers to wear regular briefs at night, the addition of these heavy absorbency overnight pads might just make the difference between a good nights sleep and a miserable nights sleep. These pads have a self-adhesive strip to keep them securely in place for even those men who toss and turn.

Also, especially when dealing with the elderly, please don't use the word "diapers." This was a pet peeve of mine when I was caring for my Mom. "Diapers" are for children.

Tena Serenity for Men Discreet Bladder ProtectionCHECK PRICE

Tranquility Premium OverNight Pull-On Overnight Male Incontinence ProtectionCHECK PRICE

Tranquility TopLiner Booster Pad and Contour Pad for Male incontinenceCHECK PRICE

Tranquility TopLiner Contour Super-Plus Pad Heavy-AbsorbencyCHECK PRICE

Washable incontinence products make more comfortable than disposable

I cared for my elderly Mom for 5 years, until her death at 95. During that time, particularly in the last months of her life, I came to understand the importance of reusable bed underpads.

Mom was enrolled in Hospice which was great, and they provided basic supplies, like disposable bed liners. These disposable bed liners didn't always hold up to the cause (!), and I'd be changing sheets at 2 a.m. Enter the reusable bed pads like these seen. These were simply tossed in the wash in the morning and, voila, the bed mattress was protected as was my Mom. I had 5 of these mattress protectors so there were always extras hanging around.

Reusable washable mattress underpadCHECK PRICE

Invacare Reusable Bed Pads CHECK PRICE

Sahara Quilted Washable Underpads, 34x36 in., Absorbency 50 oz., Each CHECK PRICE

The first 2 absorbing male underwear shown below are for light bladder loss. The last one is moderate to heavy bladder loss. All of these underwear briefs are washable and hold up well according to reviewers on Amazon.com.

Wearever Men's Super Washable Incontinence Underwear BriefCHECK PRICE

DriBriefs - Men's Incontinence Briefs - Large - 2 prs - WhiteCHECK PRICE

Healthdri Mens Heavy BriefCHECK PRICE

These portable travel urinals are a great invention. I've used one on a boat before when a head wasn't around. And, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go...

The travel urinals works for men, women and children.

Invacare Blue Waterproof Seat Protector MEDIUM CHECK PRICE

Waterproof Seat Protector by EasyComforts CHECK PRICE

Priva Waterproof Velour Seat Protector CHECK PRICE

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here except to say that reviewers generally like these things. They sort of 'clamp' down and prevent the flow of urine until released. I suppose these are very necessary devices but they sure look like 'owwwwie' to me....

I'll leave it to you to read the descriptions and see how these work. Let's just say that I'm glad I'm a woman...

Duro-Med Suspensory UrinalCHECK PRICE

Incontinence is a problem what affects both men and women (and dogs upon occasion...). Here's a few decent articles I wandered to when researching this article Male incontinence products.

This Squidoo article wasn't my favorite to write, but I felt it had to be done. Especially since I was so involved in my Mom's care, I'm sure there are other caregivers out there who needed this information. Let me hear from you!