Feeling the Urge?
Do you know where every bathroom is in every store? Are you avoiding social events or feel like you can’t leave your home because of how often you have to pee? Do you stop drinking if you know you’re going to be stuck in the car for a long drive? If any of this sounds familiar, you might be suffering from urinary urgency and/or frequency. It can be debilitating, embarrassing and can have a significant impact on your work and social life. It’s also something that you don’t have to live with!
These are my top tops for managing urgency and taking control of your bladder health!
1. Hydration Hack
The number one mistake I see my patients with urgency and frequency make is restricting their fluids to try to manage their bathroom trips. Staying hydrated is essential and maintaining your water intake can help to keep your urine dilute, decrease bladder irritation and decrease urgency and frequency. Being smart about how you hydrate can also help - avoid drinking all of your liquids before bed and try taking small but frequent sips of water throughout the day.
2. Avoid bladder irritants
What you eat and drink may affect your urinary urgency and frequency. Some people find that caffeine, high acidity foods (tomatoes, lemon etc)., high sugar foods/drinks and carbonated beverages can irritate their bladder. An irritated bladder means increased urgency and more frequent trips to the washroom. This certainly isn’t the case for everyone but being mindful of what you eat/drink when your urgency is high might help you find a trigger.
3. Your bladder is a muscle, train it like one!
Your bladder is a muscle that stretches and contracts to hold and push out urine. If we urinate frequently our bladder loses practice stretching and holding larger quantities of urine. This means increased frequency and urgency with even small amounts of urine. Training your bladder to hold more by slowly increasing time between urinations can retrain it to hold more, for longer, more comfortably!
4. Kegel! Or stop kegels…it depends
Your pelvic floor muscles can play a big role in controlling urinary urgency. The bladder and pelvic floor muscles talk to each other – simply put when one is engaged the other is relaxed. This means when we contract the pelvic floor muscles our bladder relaxes, allowing it to fill more and reducing urgency. This isn’t always the case though! Sometimes kegels can actually make the urge sensation worse. If your pelvic floor muscles are overactive, engaging them can increase the sense of urgency.
This is where a pelvic floor muscle assessment with a pelvic physiotherapist can be helpful to determine which strategies might be right for you. If you’re ready to gain control of your bladder and get back to doing what you love with confidence, let’s work together!
Please keep in mind that there can be many reasons for urinary urgency and frequency including infection! This information is in no way a medical diagnosis and does not replace a proper assessment and treatment by your primary healthcare provider. Please always follow up with them if you are noticing new or persistent symptoms.
