External Condom Catheters for male incontinence

External Condom Catheters for male incontinence

Incontinence isa major problem for males after surgery or radiation and I've read almost nothing on the BBs about the use of external condom catheters for incontinence. After becoming incontinent my urologist recommended use of a clamp and external condom catheter to replace the use of pads / Depends. When the urologist suggested their use I didn't have a clue what an external condom catheter was, how they were used. Or their effectiveness. My thoughts at first were: Wow, your kidding, there are such things, No way Jose for me. So I'm writing this post to perhaps help those who are incontinent and using pads that get soaking wet and haven't heard of external condom catheters (ECC).

I can summarize several things about ECCs before I go into more detail.

1. They work and are a much better solution then using wet pads / Depends.

2. In some ways they are a better alternative then a penal clamp

3. Covered by Medicare where pads aren't

4. Last up to 24 hrs

5. Empty into an external drainage bag available in multiple sizes (leg bags and night bags )

I was amazed to find that there are multiple sizes (Length and width) and multiple manufactures with different brands, each with different features (material, adhesion method, Connection method etc). The options seem almost endless at first and if nothing else make you realize that your not alone and all these options wouldn't be available if there weren't many other men out there with the same incontinence problem you have.

The good news is the manufactures and suppliers provide samples for you to try. They will send you a sizing guide and various size condoms to try. The will also send you samples of the various models they carry so you can determine which one works best for you. After you determine the right size the most important issue facing you will be; will it stay on for 24 hrs at a time without leaking or coming off.

The various models / options come in:

Material: Latex vs silicon

No adhesion, various self adhesion, other adhesion methods

Connection method to drain bag

Different drain bags and attachment methods to External Condom catheter.

Sounds like a lot of options and it is but the suppliers provide advice on which ECC is best for you and if your lucky the first set of samples might provide you with a good solution and away you go!

But a big problem facing several men (especially older ) is retraction. This forces the condom catheter off. If your ECC is coming off before 24 hrs or when your not expecting it to come off, you will be exploring the various options in a lot of detail to resolve the issue Several manufactures provide specialty ECCs to address this issue and you can easily spend several weeks getting different samples and trying them to find a ECC that works for you. Part of your problem might be that given 3 samples of a type, 2 will work but the 3^rd might fall off when you didn't expect it Another problem will be determining what worked and what didn't work so you will need to keep records.

It will be very important use a soap with no lubricants in it like ivory when taking a shower and being very dry before putting on the ECC.

ECCs are better also a better alternative then a penal clamp in some ways. The clamp becomes uncomfortable after a short period of time and isn't really recommended for use at night. The clamp does provide a solution for short term use if you don't get sores from it or become uncomfortable with it on its also a better solution than wet pads. 

Well I hope this has helped someone out there and believe me its a much better solution then wet pads / Depends. I think you will find you can live a fairly normal social life and even have some advantages with ECCs : you will no longer have to visit every available bathroom and can go several hrs without draining a bag. Wearing shorts will be a challenge but there are solutions for that also. ECCs are not perfect and the idea is perhaps a bit scary or even weird  at first, but clearly an option worth looking into.