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Men's Health · Bladder & Prostate
Why men's incontinence pads disappoint almost every man who tries them.
Six months of investigation, more than 400 firsthand accounts from Australian men, and a verdict shared by board-certified urologists: what's sold over the counter has very little to do with what men actually need.
By Dr Michael Harrington
Last updated 24 April 2026
They buy them at the chemist without making eye contact with the cashier. They slip one into their boxer briefs in the morning, telling themselves "this should hold me through the day." And three hours later, they're walking differently — afraid the pad will show, shift, or speak for them.
Over six months, our editorial team gathered feedback from more than 400 Australian men aged 52 to 73, from Perth to the Gold Coast. Business owners, retired veterans, former footy players, men in their early sixties still in great shape. All of them dealing with light to moderate leakage, most often after prostate surgery, sometimes from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), sometimes simply from a workout, a cough, or a fit of laughter on the golf course.
All of them, at some point, tried incontinence pads. And every single one, without exception, described the same eight problems.
82%
of men experiencing leakage talk to no one about it, not even their GP.
The eight flaws no one talks about
Here's what comes up again and again, in their own words. Not the marketing copy on the box. The real frustrations. The ones they keep to themselves.
It moves. Constantly.
The adhesive doesn't grip men's boxer briefs well. A brisk walk through the parking lot, getting out of the ute, and the pad slides, folds, deforms. By lunchtime, it's no longer where it's supposed to be.
It doesn't fit male anatomy.
Originally designed on a female template, its shape doesn't follow the natural angle or contour. The liquid doesn't reach the absorbent zone where it should — and leaks where it shouldn't.
It shows through your pants.
The thickness, the stiffness, the rectangular shape — all of it creates a bulge that fitted slacks and chinos betray. In a board meeting, at a country club lunch, in the gym locker room, another man's trained eye spots it.
It smells after two hours.
The absorbent polymer holds the liquid but not the odour. The neutralisers saturate quickly. In a closed room, in a car, on a plane, it's the constant fear that someone else will notice before you do.
It irritates the skin.
Plastic, fragrance, adhesive: three irritants in direct contact with one of the most sensitive areas of the body. Redness, itching, and contact dermatitis come up in one out of three accounts.
It's humiliating to buy.
Hygiene aisle at Chemist Warehouse or Coles. The Costco bulk-pack stare. Running into a neighbour or a colleague at checkout. Many men told us they switched to Amazon Subscribe & Save — solely to avoid the cashier's glance.
It infantilises.
The packaging talks about "little accidents" and "drops." The vocabulary is the kind used for children. It denies the age, the profession, the dignity of the man who's buying it.
It's expensive over time.
Between $50 and $80 a month at retail. A box every ten days. Over ten years, that's $6,000 to $9,600 thrown straight in the bin — for a comfort that was never really there.
What men actually want
The same idea kept coming up at the end of almost every interview: men are tired of embarrassing situations.
They want a reliable, absorbent solution that does not leak and lets them go through their day without thinking about it.
Not a restrictive disposable pad. Just something that works, discreetly.
One brand stood out — and it's European
In recent years, a new category of products has been gaining attention: absorbent underwear. The idea is simple, to build the absorbent layer directly into real boxer briefs and eliminate the common issues of traditional solutions. Out of the twenty-three brands we tested, only one truly checked all the boxes.
The Orykas boxer addresses each of those flaws. The absorbent zone is knitted directly into the fabric, so it does not move. The thickness is built into the cut, with no visible bulk. The bamboo fibre is antibacterial and hypoallergenic. No plastic, no fragrance, no adhesive.
What stands out most is what users say: "forgot.” After a few days, men stop thinking about it. It just feels like regular underwear.
One thing to keep in mind. Bamboo fibre production is slower and in high demand, which means stock is often limited. If you are considering trying it, it is better not to wait too long.
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