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Busy days don’t always leave room for bathroom breaks. Maybe you’re on a long drive, juggling back-to-back appointments or stuck in a meeting. We’re talking about delaying urination or — as your 5-year-old self would call it — holding your pee.
Ignoring your body’s signals might feel harmless, but over time it can raise your risk of infection and other health problems.
“Holding your urine too often can raise your risk of urinary tract infections, and, in some cases, hurt your kidneys,” says Dr. Claire Wong, a family medicine doctor with Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group. “When urine sits in your bladder too long, bacteria have time to grow, which can lead to infection.”
Dr. Wong explains that we need to urinate about six to eight times per day on average, and if we don’t heed nature’s call, the following concerns are real possibilities:
Increased infection risk
Urination helps flush out bacteria in the urethra, which is the tube that transports urine from the bladder as it empties. Holding it too long gives bacteria the chance to multiply and settle in the bladder, leading to infection.
Bladder dysfunction
Holding urine can overstretch the bladder and lead to voiding dysfunction, which is a lack of coordination between the bladder muscle and the urethra. This can result in an overactive bladder and urine leakage.
Kidney strain
When we hold our urine by contracting the sphincter against an already strained bladder, the bladder wall can thicken and break down the normal one-way mechanism of urine flow from the kidneys into the bladder. This can increase the risk of infection and lead to long-term kidney and bladder issues.
Bowel issues
Abnormal urinary voiding is often accompanied by abnormal bowel voiding (feces leakage) or constipation, which can be painful and emotionally distressing.
Bed-wetting concerns
While holding urine for normal amounts of time during the day can help small children develop bladder control at night, holding urine for prolonged periods once the bladder is full — and you have the urge to urinate but do not do so on a regular basis — could lead to bed wetting for all ages.
Talk to your doctor if you have concerns about frequent holding of urination or the need to urinate often, which can be a sign of infection, prostate enlargement in men, or due to the onset of diabetes, kidney stones or other health conditions that should be addressed.
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