Does wearing a permanent catheter make you incontinent over time?

I have a question for everyone who wears the catheter permanently and does so voluntarily. I've been wearing it constantly for a long time now and I'd be interested to know if anyone knows what effect it has over time? Does it just reduce the bladder volume or does it make you incontinent at some point?

Think of your bladder as ballon it expands and contracts when filled or emptied. An indwelling cath long term will shrink and atrophy both the bladder and muscles first your bladder loses the ability to expand and becomes incompetent meaning as little as 100 ML is to much to hold and you get involuntary overflow incontinence eventually the pelvic muscles atrophy from disuse and you are using a catheter or diaper full time because there is nothing you can control , commonly when the pelvic floor atrophy’s you slowly start having fecal control issues that can progress to no voluntary control of urine or feces at that point you need to wear both a catheter and a diaper . I have seen it take as little as 3 months or several years depending on comorbid health conditions and your overall physical condition .

I wear mine sometimes for 2 weeks ..but i plug it and let it fill and when it is full i goto the bathroom and drain ..I love the feeling of have a catheter in me nothing like it...So when i remove the catheter after 14 days maybe a 1/2 day later back to norm.

My wife has been on an SP cath for several years. Once it was put in she never peed urethrally. Last summer she had abdominal laparoscopic surgery, and quite occasionally pees at night - so the path is open and the bladder muscle still works. Docs have no idea why this suddenly started.

Too scared to ask this... can a urinary catheter be reversed for fluids to enter the bladder?

@concrete - Water can be instilled into the bladder or drained out of the bladder through a catheter. That is the way that we perform Cystometrograms and Urodynamic testing on patients. It is imperative to use sterile technique and fluids when this is done, to prevent urinary tract infections.

I think it is likely that wearing a catheter for a long period of time will indeed cause at least some degree of incontinence. A couple of years ago, I forced my husband to wear a catheter or three weeks as part of a chastity scene. When I finally removed it, he had significant problems with leaking urine. We finally had to resort to one of those condom like external catheters that many men use. It took a good two weeks before he stopped leaking into his undies! I think the size of the catheter was either 16 FR or perhaps as large as 18 FR . Since then, when I want to use a catheter on him I only leave it in for a maximum of 24 hours; with the 24 hour routine even the large 18 FR does not cause any problems. If I want to control him for longer than 24 hours, I put one of those external condom catheters on him.

In my case I have noticed that if I am wearing a catheter for even 12 hours I have some additional urine leakage beyond my normal knowledge and small leak when I'm running or exercising. I normally use a pad anyway when I am exercising so the little extra is really not a problem.

Dita