I’m a urologist so you need to stop peeing in the shower NOW

We’ve all been through that.

You’re getting clean in the shower and suddenly feel the urge to urinate.

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Nobody is watching, so you let it go as a yellow puddle washes down the drain.

While it may feel like a guilty pleasure, this act could actually damage your pelvic floor muscles.

The urologist Dr. Teresa Irwin said: “Every time you hear the sound of water, your bladder wants to pee – because it’s used to hearing the sound of water in the shower.

“So when you wash your hands, do the dishes, your bladder will sort of drool because it wants to pee.”

In a post on TikTok, Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas that peeing under a running stream of water creates an association with your brain that you need to pee.

This means you could get the urge while simply running the faucet.

She explained, “There’s the general perspective of bladder fitness and the perspective of the pelvic floor.”

dr Jeffrey-Thomas referred to Pavlov’s dog experiment.

“He rings every time he puts food down for the dog, so eventually the dog starts associating the bell and he starts drooling.

“Even if there is no food there.

“When you pee in the shower or turn on the faucet or turn on the shower and sit on the toilet to pee while the water is running, you create an association in your brain between the sound of running water and the need to pee .

She added that this, combined with pelvic floor dysfunction down the line, could lead to leakage issues.

dr Jeffrey-Thomas said this could be when you wash your hands, when you hear running water, when you wash the dishes and when you go swimming.

“Unfortunately, those of us who were assigned females at birth and have this anatomy aren’t cut out to pee standing up,” she added.

dr Jeffrey-Thomas said there are a number of traits women have that can be detrimental to their pelvic health.

She listed them as “bad habits for your pelvic floor.”

• Squeeze out your pee or poop
• Hover over the toilet
• Do tons of kegels without being checked out by a pelvic floor specialist

dr Alicia also highlighted that “peeing just in case” is a harmful trait, but said there are some exceptions to that rule.

She said they peed before bed, before or after sex, and before a long drive of an hour or more.

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