Your habit of holding urine should be re-examined, according to experts as it can cause severe health hazards. But it’s typical to ignore body signs to be productive or to relax while the bladder is pleading for relief. How often have you found yourself unwilling to miss a second of a movie you just paid $25 for? Or, have you felt the need to finish a meeting or the final hours of a road trip before doing something else?
Holding your urine in occasionally can usually be harmless. Still, in certain situations, particularly if it’s a habitual, learned behavior, it can be harmful to your health, according to Dr. Jason Kim, clinical associate professor of urology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York.
The causes and methods of our initial urination are the source of these hazards.
“Urine is controlled by a complex neurological system,” Kim, the director of the university’s Women’s Pelvic Health and Continence Centre, noted. Your kidneys produce urine, which is subsequently sent to the bladder via two tubes known as ureters. The typical bladder volume, in cubic centimeters, is between 400 and 600.
Kim claims that nerve receptors notify the brain that it’s time to urinate when the bladder is about halfway full.
According to Kim, when the bladder is roughly halfway full, nerve receptors alert the brain that it’s time to urinate. The brain then instructs the bladder to hold it until a socially acceptable time. According to Kim, the brain sends signals that cause the muscles in the bladder to contract. This contraction squeezes out pee. The brain also signals the relaxation of the urethral sphincter muscle.
We were made this way because, according to Dr. David Shusterman, a board-certified urologist at NY Urology in New York City, “our predators would smell us if we just peed as we were walking along, let’s say, the road.” Because urine contains concentrated toxins, your body is attempting to eliminate them. As a result, you want to hold onto the toxins because they smell and you want to be able to expel them when you’re more protected.
Here are some additional facts regarding the dangers of holding your urine in, based on this science.
Disadvantages of holding urine
Urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are caused by bacteria entering the urinary tract, can be more likely to occur if you hold your urine in.
In an email, Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, a urologist at Orlando Health and a CNN contributor, wrote: Urinating ideally clears away new intruders. However, holding onto urine might create a serious health hazards such as it create breeding ground for bacteria.
After sexual activity, bacteria can be forced into the urethra. It is therefore recommended that people with feminine anatomy urinate following sex to reduce the risk.
Kim said that if you don’t treat a UTI, it could spread to your kidneys and lead to a kidney infection called pyelonephritis. A bloodstream infection urosepsis, or sepsis from a urine source, may result if that illness is also left untreated.
Experts warn that holding urine too often can pose serious health hazards as it eventually weaken your bladder muscles.
According to specialists, holding in pee too frequently might weaken your bladder muscles over time. This weakness can make it harder for them to produce adequate force to empty the bladder.
When you eventually leave, this makes “it harder to empty,” according to Brahmbhatt. “A vicious cycle may ensue—the more urine that remains, the higher the risk of infection.”
Experts say that if you keep ignoring your body’s signals, they’ll start to fade away or might even stop working altogether.
“We observe a lot of this in teachers and nurses,” Kim stated. “When they are working or in the classroom, they never use the loo during the day.”
If you can’t urinate, see a doctor. Instead of waiting to see if anything changes, just get evaluated now. According to Kim, self-administered intermittent catheterization, long-term catheterization, and sacral neuromodulation are among the available treatments. Sacral neuromodulation, which is a bladder pacemaker that can occasionally “restore the ability for the bladder muscle to squeeze normally,” is one of the options.
According to specialists, retaining pee can result in urine backing up into the kidneys. In more severe situations, this can cause hydronephrosis, infections, or kidney damage. In the latter, the accumulation causes the kidneys to expand and stretch. Abdominal pain, cramps, or bladder stones can also result from not emptying your bladder sufficiently.
How dangerous is it to retain your urine?
You never know when germs that could cause a UTI have entered your urethra. Experts advised responding to your body’s signals as soon as possible.
According to experts, holding your urine for a few hours is unlikely to cause serious healrh hazards to the average healthy individual. A few times a week is also acceptable. If you consistently ignore your urge to urinate for weeks or more, you’re unnecessarily straining your kidneys and bladder.
Delaying urination can be riskier for certain individuals than others, so they need to be more careful.
Since aging can be accompanied by constricting urethras (for women) and enlarging prostates (for men), that also applies to those who might not be as able to fight infections, such as older adults who may also have a decreased ability to urinate correctly, according to Shusterman.
Holding their urine can also be harmful to people with neurogenic bladder or renal diseases.
Women who are pregnant should be aware holding urine as it can cause grave health hazards.
Pregnant women should be mindful of their urge to urinate. They are more susceptible to UTIs due to the increased weight and pressure of the uterus on the bladder. This pressure can prevent the bladder from emptying fully, according to Shusterman.
Urinating frequently is crucial for you. This is especially important if you smoke or work with chemicals like petrol. Shusterman explained that you are more likely to acquire bladder cancer with these habits.
According to doctors, if you observe that you are using the restroom more frequently than usual, this could indicate a UTI. It’s also possible that this symptom points to diabetes or overactive bladder syndrome. See a urologist in this situation. They can help you figure out what’s going on. A urologist can begin bladder training activities once you’ve figured out what’s going on.
“I understand if using public restrooms makes you uncomfortable,” Brahmbhatt wrote in an email. However, letting your body go when it needs to is preferable to suppressing it. If it’s more comfortable for you, bring a portable seat cover or some disinfectant wipes. Your future self and bladder will appreciate it!
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