Five Signs of an Unhappy Bladder - Get Holiday Ready!

November 2024

Rebba Kipp, PT, DPT and Certified Birth Doula  - Tranquility Pelvic Health

With the holidays coming up, many of us are traveling, trying new food, and sleeping in new places disrupting our normal routine.   This can also disrupt our normal bladder habits. How many of us have been frustrated by the number of times having to stop while on a road trip to pee “just in case”?  

I didn’t learn what normal or not normal bladder habits were until I took my first class about pelvic health while in physical therapy school. We usually don’t talk about urination unless something is bothering us.  

The 5 main signs of an unhappy bladder are:  

1. Frequent urination of 10+ a day or every hour 

2. Frequent nighttime urination > 1x a night  

3. Unable to delay using the restroom when the urge starts or painful bladder filling 

4. An unsteady or stop/start urinary stream  

5. Feeling of incomplete bladder emptying   

Angry Bladders are No Fun!

If you are having any of the symptoms above, you may benefit from a pelvic floor physical therapist consultation. Pelvic physical therapy can offer several behavioral, exercise and educational based interventions to treat these symptoms.  

In contrast, what is “normal”?  

Though there are exceptions, in general we should be doing the following:  

1. Using the restroom every 2-3 hours during waking hours  

2. Using the restroom 0-1x during sleeping hours  

3. Being able to delay using the restroom if needed  

4. Having a steady urinary stream of 8 seconds or more  

5. Feeling like the bladder is empty at the end of urination 

There are several reasons why our bladder may not be doing this, but a disruption to our “normal” is a common one. That’s because our bladder is influenced by our level of stress, hydration, muscle tension, positioning on the toilet, and how often we have trained our bladder to use the restroom.  

Our bladder is made up of a muscle called the detrusor muscle. Its job is to relax and expand while the bladder fills, and then contract when we are voiding. Our pelvic floor is a group of muscles that support our pelvic organs in both male and female anatomy. Its job is to have some level of tension to prevent us from peeing involuntarily, and then relax when we are ready to pee. This is the main reason why hovering on the toilet can prevent us from voiding all the way.    

Pelvic Anatomy

Here are some helpful tips to keep our bladder happy this holiday season (and all year long!):  

1. Staying hydrated  

   1. Limiting our fluid intake can make our bladder more sensitive to fluid causing us to feel like we need to go more often than we need to. 

   2. Coffee, caffeine, and carbonated beverages can be dehydrating and therefore having water while we also enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning can be helpful to keeping our bladder happy. 

2. Sitting while on the toilet  

   1. No hovering!  

   2. I know that sitting on a public toilet seat can feel gross, but the material of a toilet seat is designed to not keep germs on them, however if that doesn’t reassure you, placing a toilet protector sheet or a layer of toilet paper is great.  

3. Going only when you feel the urge  

   1. Going “just in case” can fool our detrusor muscle of the bladder into thinking that this is the new position of a full bladder and cause you to go more frequently.  

   2. Instead, monitor if you’re going every 2-3 hours or only when you feel the urge to urinate.  

      

4. Moving our belly and hips  

   1. If we are still feeling incompletely empty or having difficulty starting an urge we can try rocking our hips back and forth on the toilet or in a circle  

   2. Using diaphragmatic breathing to help relax our pelvic floor (see the image below)  

If this post resonated with you or you know someone who may benefit from this information, please like, save or share this post.  

Greater Charlotte Pelvic Collaboration has an amazing group of talented pelvic physical therapists located in the greater Charlotte region who could help with managing or eliminating these symptoms.