www.incontinentsupport.org

On another discussion forum, some users complained that, as their diapers swelled with absorbed pee, they pinched their testicles and also made it difficult to pee.

I doubt that any lasting harm is done to the testicles, although it can be painful. However, I recall reading (I forget the source) that back pressure of urine can (reflux?) can be injurious to the kidneys.

Personally, I do sometimes experience difficulty urinating while wearing a premium diaper with a booster pad. This mostly occurs at night. As I am well-hydrated and need to pee several times during the night.

Does anyone have more information on this? I probably will do some research and see what I can find.

—John
(double incontinent)

When I was first diagnosed with urinary incontinence, my then urologist told me that my bladder spasms gave me a choice: diapers of dialysis. I chose the urinary sphincterotomy and diapers. Because I have since developed bowel incontinence, I would have needed to wear diapers eventually anyway. But if your urethra is pinched, and your bladder spasms a vigorous enough, I can understand that reflux damage to your kidneys could happen. If that happens, diapers can become life savers.

I don't usually have bladder spasms. But before I started to wear protection, I once started to pee while sitting on the couch waiting for the washroom to be free (we only have one). So I clamped my "member" to keep it from leaking. Shortly after that, my bladder began a somewhat painful spasm. So clearly it can happen. Thankfully, the bathroom became available about then.

I think a few things are getting mixed up here.

Diapers and the testicle: The testicle likes it cold. The higher the temperature there, the less sperm is produced. A diaper can contribute to the warming - as a result there could be problems with family planning.

Diapers and difficulty urinating: It can happen that the penis lies awkwardly and possibly the urethra is somewhat bent. The same can happen if you still have a foreskin. Whether this then leads to a reflux problem depends on the circumstances. If the ureter is normally open, this is very unlikely.

But if you have a prostate enlargement or a urethral obstruction or a neurogenic bladder disorder, you might have to be more careful. Here it depends on whether the bladder disorder is based on a high pressure or a low pressure detrusor. In the case of a high-pressure system, high pressures can occur in the bladder, which may increase if it cannot get out. How ever - here the diaper is mostly the lesser problem, because the harmful pressure builds up there either by a detrusor sphincter dysynergy or just by the drainage obstacle in the urethra.

This is one of the reasons why a urodynamic examination is performed. If the pressure measured is too high, a micturition cysturethrography and reflux cystography are usually performed, which can then be used to identify the problem very precisely.

If reflux is detected, this is usually a reason for a catheter - until the problem has been solved surgically (if possible).

Quite a few years ago and well before I started having any incontinence issues I had what I believe to be a bladder/kidney reflux event. I was driving home one evening on a country road quite in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden I had a very strong urge to urinate. I was able to hold it for a while but after about five minutes of painfully "holding it" I suddenly got what almost felt like an ice pick stab to both sides in my lower back, the pain was intense to say the least. Although the pain did back off slightly, to prevent a reoccurrence I quickly pulled off onto a small deserted side road, got out and urinated right then and there. From that point on the most of the pain subsided fairly quickly and was mostly gone after another five minutes or so. It is my suspicion that what had occurred was a reflux of urine back into my kidneys. I didn't have any further issues but if that's what it was you don't want to go there, and I learned never to "hold it" to that level ever again. And as others have said I believe the reflux/back pressure can damage your kidneys.