Stress Incontinence

Stress Incontinence is an extremely common type of bladder control problem. It involves a small involuntary loss of urine without the urge to go. Often, when we laugh, cough, lift, sneeze or do exercise. 1 in 3 women will suffer from stress incontinence at some stage during their life most often brought about through weakened pelvic floor muscles. Weakened muscles commonly, are brought on by pregnancy, childbirth or simply getting older.

Even though stress incontinence is very common it is still embarrassing to experience bladder leakage unexpectedly. Stress Incontinence is one of those personal issues that women rarely talk about. It can be hugely expensive too, to constantly be buying disposable liners and many women have reported suffering skin irritation with the daily and prolonged use of disposable liners because of the materials and chemicals used in them. In response, Poppy Pads have designed and developed a series of liners specifically suited to stress incontinence.

In the past, many women have come to this site looking for alternatives to disposable liners for stress incontinence and increasingly, we were asked to make Panty Liners of varying lengths and levels of absorbency for them. Although we knew that many women were using Poppy Pads very successfully for urinary leakage we had no tried and tested way to standardise them or, to quantify pads to assist women to decide which absorbency level pad would be good for their level of urine loss. Hence, we conducted a study to standardise liners and have had the greatly appreciated help of a group of volunteers who tested our pads for us and provided feedback .

All of our testers who supplied feedback were enormously happy with them and, offered a high level of praise:

“Wow! I have been completely blown away by the pads, because in all honesty I assumed, #1 they would leak, #2 they would be obvious, #3 they wouldn’t stand up to washing. Well I stand corrected on all!!! They are awesome, they were comfortable to wear, discreet, soaked up well and were easy to wash and dried fast”

“Overall, a fantastic product and one that I would willingly recommend to friends – very comfy to wear and easy to use. In particular the ability to fold them up to transport them cleanly was great. I use disposables regularly and found your pads to be far superior in comfort, absorbency, and to me – convenience.”

“ I enjoyed using them as they are far softer with no scratchy edges when they are worn over a few hours – they don’t roll at the sides like commercial pads do. Happy with the size overall - length and width and like the two sizes of snaps as different underwear has different widths."

"Had previously tried supermarket panty liners which needed to be changed after each cough. Then tried some Poise pads and they were ok but bulky to wear. Much preferred the slimness of your pads and the softness. Would happily recommend these as cost wise they must be superior to something you just throw away and unlike for period use there is no need to worry about staining etc. High comfort level”

“I still felt feminine wearing them and I feel good about not being responsible for adding more waste to the environment. Thank you so much!”

Panty Liners for Stress Incontinence

Our Panty Liners for stress incontinence have been standardised for length – most people preferred 20cm long. Our Panty Liners are all-in-one (just like a disposable) with wings that wrap around your underwear. Snap fasteners secure them in place. A choice of 2 snap fasteners allow for narrow and wider panty gussets (7cm expanding to 8cm). All pads have an ultra absorbent bamboo/cotton core and a leak proof layer too (PUL).

Although our preference is always for natural fabrics where possible we did trial 2 different fabrics for the covers of the pads – either 100% cotton or Suede cloth. As Suede cloth is not a natural fabric it does not absorb moisture but tends to wick it away into the absorbent core of the pad and thus, creates a ‘stay dry’ layer next the skin. We suspected that for urinary leakage, the Suede cloth would have the edge for comfort and 'stay dry' ability. This did seem to be the case. However, cotton will remain as a choice for the outer cover as there were still preferences for cotton just because it is a natural fabric and also by women who had sensitivities/allergies etc.. Here are some of the comments from our testers:

“Cotton covers weren’t totally dry but not too bad. Suede cloth covers were better I think”

“ I thought the Suede cloth had slightly better absorbency, overall more comfy, a nicer feel and seemed to be resistant to holding any stains”

“ I preferred the cotton covers as I have very sensitive skin and tend to react to anything unnatural”

“I prefer the cotton pad as I just prefer to use more natural products”

Absorbency levels

We have also standardised absorbency levels for our liners. Hence, there are 3 increasing levels of absorbency to choose from suitable for:

• Level 1 occasional drops
• Level 2 small losses
• Level 3 small to medium losses / nights / on occasions when extra absorption is needed e.g. long journeys etc.

All Poppy Pads come with details regarding their use, washing etc.. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us via the ‘Contact Us’ page.