When you pee, your body empties the bladder, but sometimes you can push and more pee will come out. So how come your body doesn’t get rid of all the pee at once?
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Your pelvic floor has enough resting tone to prevent passive leakage from occurring as your bladder fills; in other words, your pelvic floor is contracted when you’re doing daily activity, sleeping, walking, etc. When you sit on the toilet, you volitionally tell your pelvic floor muscles to relax, which in turn, tells your bladder to contract and you pee. It is normal to have some degree of what’s called post void residual or urine left over in the bladder, but reasons you may not be emptying completely include if you’re not relaxing optimally (i.e. if you hover over the toilet or power pee) or you may have some degree of cystocele, urethral laxity, or some other anatomical variation that prevents you from emptying fully. Cystocele is where the bladder starts to tip backwards into the vagina. When this happens, you can kind of think of it like a coke bottle on its side; most of the fluid would empty out, but there is a little residual fluid and standing up, bending forward or bending side to side may help you to empty the rest of the way.
While we’re on the topic, here are some points that may help with optimal emptying. It’s not good to get in the habit of “JIC” or “just in case” peeing. Bladders can hold over two cups of fluid and when we get in the habit of peeing as soon as we experience that first urgency signal, we are training our bladder to be overactive; In other words, the bladder starts sending urgency signals earlier and earlier, and before you know it, you really feel like you have to pee, but when you go, only a small amount comes out. For a healthy bladder, you should be peeing 1x every 3-4 hours. You should drink about half of your body weight (in lbs) in ounces of water, minimize bladder irritants that increase urgency, and make sure you are fully relaxing your pelvic floor when you go. If you have an overactive bladder and you’re trying to postpone for longer periods before going, try kegels — pelvic floor contractions decrease bladder urgency by temporarily stopping signals being sent to the bladder that tell you that you have to go. You can also try distraction techniques such as walking out of the bathroom, counting backwards, reading, etc.
Sorry if that was TMI, but we rarely get taught about pelvic floor, bowel or bladder function in our lives, so there is lot of misinformation, and I think it’s super important to know this stuff BEFORE it becomes problematic.
Source: Pelvic floor physical therapist
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