Women Who Urinate in the Shower Could End up with Urinary Leakage Issues

Peeing in the shower is a very common practice for a lot of people mostly done to save water and to help the environment. But for women, this could lead to urinary leakage

Shower

It’s one of the most common environmentally friendly activities, but it can trigger a kind of Pavlovian reflex. Physician Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, in an article published by IFLScience, pointed out that the habit some women have of urinating in the shower while a seemingly harmless way of saving water and toilet paper can lead to urine leakage over time.

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But first, what is the Pavlovian reflex? As early as 1889, Russian scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov conducted experiments on the drooling of dogs. Among other things, he realized that a dog could be taught to drool in response to a sound signal if it was trained to be fed in response to that signal. This learning can be combined with different types of signals that engage different senses, such as smell.

“When you urinate in the shower or turn on the faucet or run the shower and sit on the toilet while the water is running, you create an association in your brain between the sound of running water and the urge to urinate,” explains Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas. This association is even riskier if a person has pelvic floor problems or develops these problems as they age. At this point, the shower’s conditioning could provoke leaks as soon as the sound of running water reaches a person’s ears.

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This doctor also points out another problem: bladder health. Women aren’t used to urinating while standing, but some do it in the shower anyway. “Your pelvic floor doesn’t relax properly,” she tells sufferers, “which means your bladder doesn’t empty well.” If it’s really urgent, it’s best to squat as low as possible to keep your pelvic floor relaxed.

Ideally, though, you don’t want to relieve yourself in the shower. If you literally can’t stop yourself from peeing in the shower at that moment, that’s not a good sign,” says Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas. In that case, you need to consider deconditioning yourself from this practice.

Read Also: Cancer Diagnosis: MIT Team Develops New Urine Test That Can Detect Tumors and Metastases

References

Doctor Explains Why They Believe Women Definitely Shouldn’t Pee In The Shower