Incontinence and ED Pumps

User

Posted 12 Mar 2020 at 17:37

I had my robotic prostate surgery at the end of May last year.

I have always been leaking since then, and after the first few months I started weighing the pads to see how much I was leaking. Over the months it has been improving, although sometimes varying by quite a large amount for no apparent reason that I could see.

I was prescribed a Soma Erect Response II penis pump which I got in January and first used it on the 22nd January.

I seem to be leaking more with the use of the pump. It is difficult to be specific as, for example, I am doing heavy gardening work I will normally leak more than usual, but it does seem a lot worse with the pump, although not always.

I started weighing my pads in August so can be precise in knowing how they vary day by day. In the month after starting using the ED Pump my best day was 32ml, and my worst day was 194. As it happens, my second best day of 33ml was in a period where I had been using the pump daily for the previous 15 days, but the bad days were worse than any leaking in the month before the pump.

I would appreciate any comments please!

User

Posted 12 Mar 2020 at 20:54

Not sure it is reassuring, but even after nearly 4 years my urine leakage follows the pattern you describe. Though I have only checked by weighing once or twice, mostly a single pad suffices but it varies between fairly mild leakage (but would be embarrassing if shown as wet patch) to full pad. And just occasionally I need a second pad.

I was given a pump slighly earlier in the journey than you so that might have been a difference. I don't recall an obvious effect on continence, but at that point I was leaking rather more anyway (by which I mean a couple of pads fairly routinely).

But in my life at least, slowly regaining some erectile function was psychologically important. Though I imagine that was a combination of the pump, the tadalafil prescription, and the healing of time. While neither continence nor erections are where they were before the operation, I feel I can get on with life without being over concerned about them. A pad a day isn't the worst thing that could happen (and a single spare in the back pocket will cover the very occasional bad day) and I still have a sex life though different.

User

Posted 12 Mar 2020 at 22:43

Activity does make you leak more if you're not fully continent and even if it's intermittent. Perhaps the pump is causing some extra strain.

Your profile shows more detail than your note and it does look better each month.

Have you data for days when you did nothing. If it is very low on those days then perhaps you could try having a spell doing less and see if it helps building it back up slowly and perhaps doing Kegels to different levels.

It might not help as some people need other solutions, but doing different combinations of possible solutions might improve the speed of progress.

User

Posted 14 Mar 2020 at 12:17

Thanks for sharing your experiences J-B, and it is reassuring to know that my leakage variance is not unusual.

Peter, I have updated my profile, and there has been some recent improvement, when looking at the statistics rather then just how I have felt. Perhaps the days I have been doing more outside work (like the gardening) I have been more lax about the Kegels due to less spare time and a tired feeling as a result of the work. I am also aware of leaking while twisting and lifting (while sitting on the ground) but I have been less active on the gardening over the past week. Subjectively the leaking is worse in the afternoon which would suggest that the pelvic floor needs more exercising.

I have been using the pump alternate days approx over the past week and the readings have been 71, 40, 30, 56, 66, 90, 31 (the 31 was yesterday), and it is difficult to see a reason for the variation.

Thanks to you both for your interest

User

Posted 23 Apr 2020 at 11:34

I have just updated my profile but the gist of the profile changes is that I have reduced the pump use to about 3 or 4 times a week, rather than (nearly) every day.

Whether as a result of that, or my body getting used to the ED pump I am now finding that the days with the pump are no worse, incontinence wise, than the days without. In fact, some of the days with the pump are better than the days without.

The good news is that the incontinence level is still going down, so I will just have to wait and see where the end result is.

User

Posted 24 Apr 2020 at 09:37

I cannot think of a mechanism by which use of a pump could effect continence. The pump only really has any impact on the external half of your penis. It can't generate an erection in the internal half, although it would cause some more blood flow through it during the tumescence and detumescence.

If you were fitting a constriction ring and having sex, there might be a small chance of those movements being detectable at the sphincter, but it still seems unlikely to me.

If you managed to reach orgasm, that does include the pelvic floor in which the sphincter is situated, but still seems unlikely to effect continence later on.

Edited by member 24 Apr 2020 at 09:39 | Reason: Not specified

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