If you’re living with male incontinence, rest assured you’re not alone: almost three million men in the UK experience it, from a small amount of leakage to a lot more. Some incontinence symptoms you may experience include:
- Leaking urine when you laugh, run, jump or cough
- Needing to go to the toilet suddenly and urgently
- Being unable to empty your bladder
- Erectile dysfunction
The good news is there are ways to manage male incontinence, including kegel exercises. To understand the best incontinence treatment for you, it’s best to speak to your doctor. However, one positive step you can start taking today is to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles with some simple exercises.
An easy exercise to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles
The first kegel exercise is to see how long you can contract your pelvic muscles for.
Here’s how it works:
- Sit, stand or lie with your knees slightly apart, then imagine you are trying to stop yourself from passing wind and urine at the same time.
- Slowly squeeze and lift your muscles (you may feel the base of your penis move slightly up towards your stomach as you do so).
- To make sure that only your pelvic muscles are working, don’t pull in your stomach, squeeze your legs together, tighten your bottom muscles or hold your breath.
- See how long you can hold your muscles for the first time you try (up to a maximum of 10 seconds) then try to increase it over time.
- You also want to increase your repetitions of this exercise over time (up to a maximum of 10 repetitions).
Practise quick contractions too
When you laugh, cough or sneeze your pelvic floor muscles need to be able to react quickly. So it’s just as important to practise quick contractions, ideally up to three times a day.
To do this simply tighten your muscles (as we described above) quickly and then release them. The aim is to build up to a set of 10 quick repetitions like this.
Your pelvic muscles will strengthen over time
To help make your kegel exercises a habit, why not set an alarm on your phone, practice them every time you go to the toilet, or choose a regular time of day, such as just before getting out of bed in the morning to do them? There’s plenty of guidance to help you find manage incontinence without it changing your day-to-day life.
If you do keep up with your practice, your pelvic floor muscles will strengthen over time, and you’ll start to notice the benefit. In the meantime, using absorbent products will help you maintain a normal lifestyle.
So are you ready to start strengthening your pelvic floor muscles? Why not start exercising them right now!
Find the right incontinence product for you
Designed to fit your body shape and delivered in discreet packaging, Depend® offers a range of incontinence product for men - so you can stay active and in control at all times.