What Happens If You Hold Your Pee In For Too Long
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Published 2018-06-08
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Following is the transcript of the video:
You’re about an hour and a half into the movie and, boy, are you regretting that large soda. You can hold it... but should you?
Peeing is pretty important. Your kidneys filter excess water and waste out of your blood and that urine needs somewhere to go: your bladder. Normally, it’ll hold 1-2 cups comfortably. But if you make a habit of holding your pee for long periods of time, you can actually stretch your bladder to easily hold even more.
Case in point, one study found that nurses who often held it in all day due to job constraints had nearly double the normal bladder capacity! And they were totally fine.
But this doesn’t mean you should hold it in if you can help it. Because your bladder may not be the only thing to stretch.
You may also stretch your external sphincter muscles. Those are important muscles connected to the outside of your bladder that are the gate-keepers of your golden liquid. Clench them and you hold in the gold. Relax them and you release the flood! But if you overstretch them, you can actually lose control. This is rare, and usually takes decades of holding it too long to reach that point, but once you do, it can lead to some awkward or even dangerous situations.
For example, with less overall control, you risk leaking urine when your bladder is full and not emptying it all the way when you finally do go. Not only can this increase your need to urinate more often since your bladder fills up quicker, it can also lead to a serious disorder called urinary retention, where you end up with too much urine in your bladder for too long. And since your bladder is basically a warm, wet bag of body waste, it’s the PERFECT breeding ground for harmful bacteria that’ll cause all sorts of damage.
Even worse, if you’re really unlucky and retain too much urine, it may back up into your kidneys. Which could lead to kidney failure, and ultimately death.
The good news is that you’re more likely to just lose control of your muscles and pee waaaay before your bladder hits that point. But why not just reduce the risk all together and go to the bathroom?
Ok, ok, we get it. That movie is absolutely gripping. Luckily... You’ll be fine if you only hold it in for a short time, every once in a while. So go ahead, hang in there... just don’t make a habit of it.
All Comments (21)
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I just want to show this to all the teachers out there
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Can you tell my teachers this, they won't listen
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One time I actually held my bladder for 9 hours straight. We were on a really long car trip and it just made the trip a lot short with less rest stops. I didn’t know back then that this was a bad thing to do. At least as so as we got home, everyone got out of my way as I ran for the bathroom 😂
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I remember once holding my pee for 4 hours after drinking over a liter and a half of water beforehand. I don’t know why I haven’t just stopped at a gas station or something but I insisted on making it home. My bladder felt like it was about to explode for a solid 30 minutes and any small movement of my body made it hurt like hell. But the worst part was when I had finally made it home and tried to get out of the car to go to the bathroom. I’ve spent 15 minutes to walk from my car to the bathroom. I couldn’t stand up right from the pain. Needless to say it was the longest peeing session of my life and the relief I felt was unmatched by anything else. That day I was really worried that my bladder would actually pop. I will never allow my self to reach that stage again.
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When your sleeping comfortable in bed and you just don’t want to get up.
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The dislikes were from teachers who don’t want students to go to the bathroom Edit: due to dislikes being removed, I edited the sentence above
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"One last video before bed" The video:
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Update: (I have left this comment under one of your YouTube shorts!) I have a stretched bladder. I didn't learn about this until 7th grade (now in 9th grade) although I have been doing this for now five years. As a victim, I am just here to tell others that it can be very painful when you have been doing it for maybe two years (I started at 10, but it left me with the most pain I ever felt at 12, even though I have never been pregnant before I would describe it as labor. That is how painful it was for me.) Now almost 15, I got into the habit of actually going when I feel like I have to. I initially started doing it out of pleasure (yes, you read that correctly.) and then it later got out of control. This is why teaching important things about our bodies at a young age is so vital. I didn't learn about any of this until I was 13-14 years old. I now have a very sensitive stretched bladder but fortunately it is not too late to get better. :) although irreversible, I can help myself before I kill myself with the amount of germs in my organs (it can kill you slowly over time, just to note.) This goes out to whoever may need this. Please protect your organs and God bless.
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Tell this to the teachers who never let us go to the bathroom
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I’m actually holding in my pee while watching this video
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As a nurse I can totally relate.
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Damn, I've always thought it was the opposite. I thought your sphincter muscles were a "use it or lose it" thing, where you had to keep them active and practice holding it to get the muscle stronger, and if you just go right away every time you even kinda have to, you'd end up incontinent because your sphincter isn't getting enough exercise at holding it. I remember hearing an anecdote from someone that they spent years working on a farm, where they would just pee wherever anytime they had to go and would never hold it... and said that a result he lost his ability to hold it, and every time he has to pee now, it's an emergency. That made a lot of sense to me, as muscles need exercise and use to stay strong, or they atrophy. Now this tells me the opposite. I feel like if I trust it, I'll be told it's better to hold it years from now, when I'm incontinent.
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I told my teacher this and I got detention..
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If I die from now being able to pee I’ll blame my teachers
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You can end up having kidney failure on needing dialysis. When my mother was at the hospital I talked to a dialysis patient who told me that he did not like going to the bathroom unless it was his own and use to hold it all the time. He started to develop problems and was on dialysis now.
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Every EMPLOYER needs to see this as many of us are not even given breaks.
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That means our teachers are trying to kill us!!!
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People: holding in pee can lead to kidney failure Schools: i dont care
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The bladder is not like a rigid container filling up like a tank, as shown in the animation. It is an elastic bag which shrinks or expands, and never contains air above the liquid.
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Thank you for telling me this, I'm very thankful!
