5 Things to Avoid When Peeing
#1 Hovering or squatting, over the toilet.
We’ve all been in that gross bathroom at the beach or our favorite trailhead and you can’t imagine sitting down. Your first instinct is to just hover a few inches above that toilet seat, to avoid EVERYTHING. However, your pelvic floor muscles aren’t able to relax fully in this position. This can lead to poor coordination of the pelvic muscles.
# 2 Creating triggers.
If you turn on a faucet or shower while you pee, this can create new neuropathways so that overtime when you hear running water you have to pee- triggered. You “Pavlov dog” yourself! Some people initially use running water to cover the sound of pee (hello me in middle school!). Some people’s parents used it to help them pee before leaving the house, and the habit stuck. However, I’d encourage you to try to avoid creating these habits and triggers.
#3 Bearing down, holding your breath, or pushing pee out.
This puts increased pressure on the pelvic floor muscles as well as the pelvic organs. If there’s a prolapse present, this can make the symptoms worse. This can also lead to poor coordination of the pelvic muscles and poor emptying habits when peeing.
#4 Kegeling while you pee.
Someone started telling people to kegel while they pee to see how strong their pelvic floor is. The problem is, this can contribute to infections and also teach the pelvic floor uncoordinated patterns. Our goal is to always relax the pelvic floor while emptying, so squeezing is not helpful. If you want to verify your pelvic floor strength or coordination, get assessed by a pelvic PT. They might not be necessary or even beneficial.
#5 Sitting and reading/scrolling.
My typical rule of thumb is to sit for no more than 10-15 seconds, after finishing peeing. The bladder is constantly filling so you may have a drop or two come out if you wait, but that’s typical. Again, this can contribute to the same things as bearing down- worsening prolapse symptoms and contributing to poor pelvic muscle coordination and habits.
