Does your bladder feel like it runs the show?
Are you nervous about taking a long drive or sitting through a long meeting because you are not sure when a bathroom will be available?
Do you feel like your bladder must be the size of a pea, because you swear you JUST went and now you have to go again?
Believe it or not, these symptoms are quite common in performers, athletes, and other active women that I treat. If you have to urinate more often than every 2-4 hours, and it happens on the regular (not just when you’ve had 6 cups of coffee), it can be a pretty intrusive problem in your life. It might be constantly in the back of your mind as you plan your day, your work, your workouts, and your social life. If you’ve “gotta go” all the time, here are 5 possible things that could be perpetuating the problem:
CONSTIPATION: You are amazing, intense, driven, and strong. And, my friend, you might also be pretty backed up. The rectum is packed closely near the bladder within the pelvis, so constipation can cause pressure on the bladder and make it extra cranky. There are a number of reasons athletes and performers can be prone to constipation: limited time in our schedule to slowly and calmly chew our food at meals to promote healthy digestion, high levels of stress, strange training or performing schedules that throw off our regulatory system, increased tension around the abdomen and pelvis from all that hard muscle work, you name it. If you are having bladder issues, get your bowels moving and grooving—you won’t regret it.
FOOD ALLERGIES AND/OR FOOD INTOLERANCE: When your body reacts to allergens and creates a histamine response, this can sensitize the bladder and lead to a more frequent urge to urinate. On top of that, gut irritation and inflammation that results from reactions to certain foods can further perpetuate this bladder sensitivity. Discovering an allergy or sensitivity and addressing it appropriately with the right support from a healthcare provider can make an AMAZING difference in that frequent urge to pee.
PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLE DYSFUNCTION: Your pelvic floor muscles have many functions, including being able to relax so you can adequately empty the bladder when you pee. Overactive, highly-tense pelvic floor muscles that have difficulty relaxing will limit the complete emptying of the bladder. This might be going on for you if you often sit down and pee, stand up and get dressed, and then, a few minutes later—you feel like you have to pee AGAIN. Also, these tight and tense muscles can create a “referred” muscle pain symptom that actually mimics a sensation of bladder discomfort or an urge to urinate. Addressing this muscle tension can be a big key to a happy bladder.
HABIT: Sometimes, our hectic schedules can force us into habits that are not ideal for our bladder. Perhaps you only get certain breaks through the work day, and you get used to chronically holding your bladder too long—like, for hours and hours. This can result in excessive tension in the pelvic floor muscles and also irritates the bladder—leading to a chronically cranky system. Or, perhaps you have inadvertently trained yourself to do any number of things to get through the rush of the day—peeing “just in case” you might not find a restroom later, peeing every hour because that’s when you have a break between clients, rushing through your bathroom breaks (which limits full emptying), or “pushing” your pee out to get it done quickly. Soon, your bladder signaling system is off-kilter, and can start sending the message that you have to go all the time.
DEHYDRATION: When you are dehydrated, your bladder lining becomes irritated. This can feel like a tough one because if you already have to pee all the time, you might be tempted to decrease your liquid intake. However, that will often just perpetuate the problem. Hydrating adequately with water throughout the day (drink to thirst) can help keep the bladder lining much happier.
Though I certainly didn’t cover ALL the possible contributors to frequent urination in this little blog post, I hope it helped shed some light on what you might consider if your bladder is running the show. And, I want to let you know that it DOES NOT have to be this way.