AIBU in thinking Tena are normalising incontinence so they can sell more pants?

[TeaKettleBell]

This advert:

If they really cared (which they do not) they could advise women to contact their GPs. Incontinence following childbirth can be treated. It does not mean a life sentence of Tena pants. Tena however would prefer it if we all thought Whoops moments were standard and we should all saddle up and strap on paper pants. Gahhhhhh Please if you are suffering with incontinence, visit your GP. There are strategies that will help.

Best of luck getting it all sorted on the NHS. I had a fistula between my vagina and urethra for years. No one seemed to truly care that pee came out my vagina, lots of head tilts and more exercises prescribed. Finally got it sorted abroad, not very expensive to correct, either but not really fixable without surgery after a certain amount of time. Had sort of brushed it aside when I went for a cervical screening and the GYN noticed it.

YABU. They're advertising a product for profit, they're not obliged to act as a public health campaign or a charity.

Painkiller ads don't have to tell you to consider going to the GP either because they assume adults have the common sense to assess their health needs.

For a lot of women incontinence is normal. It might be temporary, or treatable, but it is a normal consequence of childbirth or getting things like cystitis and to be expected - I'm not saying you have to put up with it, and you should see your GP about it, but women should be told that you almost certainly will have bladder trouble at some point in your life, that it is normal and you aren't weird.

So normalising it from that perspective is good. I can see what you mean that the message could be "just get on with it". But the fact is, whether or not your bladder problem is easily treatable, you do actually have to get on with life while it's happening, so the pads are really useful.

YABU. Incontinence is a reality for the woman in the ad (obviously I'm suspending my disbelief here). It is a reality - temporarily at least - for many women after childbirth as this recent MN thread reveals:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3626091-To-ask-for-help-Graphic-Thread-title-edited-at-OPs-request

Of course Tena are going to portray their potential customers as "normal" and commonplace: they wouldn't sell much product if their marketing suggested they think incontinent women are a bunch of weirdos and outcasts!

I agree that for most women the issue of post-partum incontinence does not persist, and for those who find their body does not naturally recover, there are treatments available and it is probably unnecessary to become a lifelong Tena customer. But as a pp said, Tena is not obliged to provide medical advice, and any woman who relies purely on commercial advertising for all her medical information on a given subject is a little bit silly!

And it isn't necessarily to do with pelvic floor muscles, or easily fixable. I've got endometriosis all over my bladder but it is largely symptom free, thank goodness, due to the pill I'm on. Endometriosis is chronic and incurable, and very common, so please give women (and the medical profession) some credit that they might have actually been to their GPs and have been treated as far as is possible.

for some women too their incontinence will happen & not just from big babies. I have had lots of gyno type surgeries & had put up with stress incontinence since my kids were tiny thinking it was "my normal". Exercises etc didnt help. I went to see a pelvic physio who was amazing & it helped lots but in the end I ended up with surgery - so many adhesions & scar tissue inside that my surgeon said was always going to affect me. (Note - no mesh used for me, but a strip off my abdominenal (sp) wall)

I sort of see your point although I’d be careful gloating about an 11 pound baby when that has absolutely nothing to do with anything. A fast birth without full dilation, forceps, a shoulder getting stuck, back to back etc are all a damn site more likely to result in major trauma than a large baby. And I say that as someone who has birthed a 7lb & 10.3lb baby & the large was an absolute breeze in comparison to the nightmare of the 4 day back to back plus interventions. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional but I’d be careful trivialising other people’s situations.

YANBU.

My DM lived with stress incontinence for years, she thought it was normal after a certain age and childbirth. She visited the GP, started some medication and also had minor surgery- cured.

You definitely don’t need to just deal with this, it’s usually treatable.

Totally agree. I think this every time I see the adverts.

I've looked into treatment and I'm putting up with whoops moments, but I have modibodi pants for exercise/high risk activities

"All TENA care about is selling pads"

Shock, horror. It 's a business. They're not going to portray their customers as freaks, are they.

DD wets herself (and on occasion is doubly incontinent) most times she has a seizure - and with 125 seizures a month, that quite a lot. The adult bladder and bowel service agreed the other day, nothing will stop her wetting herself during a seizure!

I find Tena Maxi pants work reasonably well for her. I am glad there is more openness about this, because when DD first started being incontinent during seizures, I did not have a clue what was available for adults!

hated that tena ad where that daft woman was prancing about in a leotard with her feather head dress. pads or no pads if you had problems you would not want to be wearing a costume half way up your chuff

I'm in two minds about this.

1. It's good for women to know that there are products out there, and for leaking to be destigmatised. Sometimes whatever training / surgery is done, women still leak.

However

2. Whilst it's common, it's not "normal". It is a malfunction of the body. And i say this as someone with both prolapsed bladder and bowel after a rough forceps delivery.

I had some physio on the NHS that I pushed for. But it was the bare minimum. I'm lucky I've been able to top that off with ongoing private care.

But high impact exercise for example, can further weaken a weak pelvic floor, which is often why some women leak during exercise. It shouldn't be a case of "just put some plastic pants / dark trousers on". Women should have access to proper care and re-education about pelvic floor safe exercise. And that is distinctly lacking in the UK.

My GP told me it was normal and to use tena pads...

Common, not normal. It's very different. But it's easier and cheaper to send you home via Tesco, than make a referral for proper physio.

‘Common’doesn’t mean we have to put up with it.

@sar302 thank you! Glad you’re feeling better now.

I do think that it is common yes. And on the nhs there are limited resources to deal with it so women are often told to put up with it. We also generally get that impression that especially for women who have had children it is to be expected.

However I genuinely feel that many causes can be greatly improved or cures with the correct physio and other support if the resources are available.

I do often wonder if the “just get on with it” attitude would prevail if this were predominantly a male problem...

YABU
For many women, and especially menopausal women, it's been an issue and one we were encouraged to feel ashamed of.

Tena is the Papmpers for the older person, they are creating a market in the same way that Pampers et al have normalised being in nappies until puberty, or at least until starting school. Before comfortable nappies one never heard of a child starting school in nappies, other than the genuine case of illness.

In my area you can self refer for physio. I haven't done it for incontinence, I did it for a frozen shoulder but the principle is the same. You phone up and ask for an appointment, I had to wait about ten days, went in and was assessed, had some manipulation and given exercies and then go back as necessary to assess how you are doing. I think it is a brilliant system.

I can't see incontinence being a trend everyone aspires to because they like the advert for black pants. I think you'd probably have to have some sort of MH problem to choose incontinence, I think psychologically I'd find it quite difficult to actually wee into a pad, I've been going to the loo for well over 60 years so it would be quite an adjustment. Then there is the cost, I bet they aren't cheap.

Yanbu in terms of the wider issue of what is predominantly a female problem being incompetently treated by our substandard healthcare service. It's not tena's "fault" as such but it does highlight how shit the NHS is, which is always annoying to think about.

I agree with AverageMummy, I've had 4 and the smallest was the ermergency C section. The second largest was the easiest and the 10lb plus difficult forceps delivery was the one I recovered from fastest, although I had some fantastic bruises for a few days and so many student midwives came and asked if they could have a look, I was famous! well my bruises were, that I said I was going to start charging.

I really don't think size is particularly relevant in how labour goes, unless they get stuck and that isn't always due to size. My smallest decided to come out chin first which really didn't help progress.