Continence Hub · Nadim Assaf, Pharmacist & Co-Founder · August 2026 · 9 min read

Stand in the continence aisle and every packet claims maximum absorbency, ultimate comfort and total confidence. None of the packets tell you the thing that actually matters: the three big brands are genuinely different products, built on different philosophies, and the right one depends on the body wearing it, not the marketing. After decades of dispensing all three across a pharmacy counter, here is the comparison we give families in person.

One thing before the scoring: all three are good brands. This is not a hit piece. It is a sorting guide, because the most expensive mistake in continence care is cycling through products at random until something works, leaking and losing sleep the whole way.

The three philosophies in one paragraph each

Abena is the Danish clinical brand. Built for genuine heavy incontinence, graded on an honest drop system that goes far higher than supermarket products, with breathable backsheets that skin specialists like. When someone says nothing holds overnight, Abena is usually where that sentence ends. We stock the premium pants and slips from 5.5 drop right up to the San 10 at 9 drops, including bariatric sizing to XXL and junior sizes the supermarkets simply do not carry.

MoliCare (by Hartmann, the German hospital supplier) is the skin-integrity brand. Its pH-skin-friendly materials and reliable fit make it our default recommendation where dermatitis, fragile skin or long wear times are in play. The Premium Men 7 drop pants are also the strongest male-specific product of the three, shaped for male anatomy rather than adapted from a unisex pattern.

Tena is the accessibility brand: the widest range, the most familiar name, the easiest fit logic, and the one your parent has probably already tried. Products like the Men Active Fit protectors are excellent for light to moderate leakage and discretion. Where Tena runs out of road is genuine heavy overnight loss, which is exactly where people get frustrated with it, through no fault of the product: it is being asked to do a job the range above it was built for.

Head to head, the way we actually judge them

That last row is the one nobody prints on a packet. A $3.60 Abena slip that holds all night is cheaper than two $2.20 products, a 3am change, and a load of washing. Price the dry night, not the unit.

So which one, for whom

Two rules that outrank any brand choice

Fit beats absorbency. The most absorbent product in the wrong size leaks at the leg, every time. Hip measurement, not dress size or trouser size, decides continence sizing. If you are between sizes, size down for leak protection, up for comfort, and call us to split the difference: 1300 216 888, no embarrassment on our end, ever.

The drop rating is comparable within a brand, not across brands. An 8 drop Abena and an 8 drop MoliCare are close cousins; a supermarket "maximum" can sit well below both. Our drop system decoder explains how to read them properly.

The NDIS and never-running-out part

All three brands are NDIS consumables, funded from your core budget without quotes. If you are on a plan, you should almost certainly not be paying out of pocket at the supermarket. Our continence funding guide covers the claiming, and monthly auto-delivery in plain parcels means the 6am empty-packet discovery never happens again.