Gender differences in Incontinence pads

Did you know that incontinence pads can be designed specifically for women’s body shape and for men? If you were to design a decision tree - and we did - you would put gender at the top as the first decision to make in choosing pads before you get down to other particulars like mobility and absorbency. So why does there need to be a difference between men’s and women’s pads?

Investigating the difference between the pads available for men and women, the shape of the pad is one of the major differences and comes down to physiological differences of males and females. Men’s pads need to be more absorbent in the front whereas for women the need for absorbency occurs in the bottom central part of their underwear.¹ As men and women’s underwear has a different design it naturally follows that the pads need different shapes to fit.

The downside of using the wrong kind of pad whether it be trying to struggle through with a pad not designed for incontinence or choosing a pad that isn’t gender specific is that a person can suffer with leakage, irritation and discomfort. For women the urethra is ‘fixed’ and urine loss occurs from a predictable position. For men, the orientation of the penis may vary considerably, particularly at night when lying on the side.² One study undertaken on the performance differences for men and women with moderate to heavy urinary incontinence found that “Urine mass is substantially higher for men than women and they may therefore require more absorbent products.”³

There are many options available in the unisex category as well varying from light through to heavy absorbencies. If you have only tried unisex pads in the past, or are finding you are experiencing issues with leakage or discomfort it might be time to experiment with a gender specific option. Molicare offers a great range of lady pad's or men’s pads that offer a more tailored fit that could help resolve issues you may have experienced in the past.

Sources:

1) https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-male-and-vs-female-urinary-system/

2) https://caringvillage.com/2019/07/22/urinary-incontinence-the-difference-between-men-and-wom- en

3) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19490196/

4) https://www.ics.org/Abstracts/Publish/45/000026.pdf

5) https://www.hartmanndirect.co.uk/information-centre/buyers-guide/