It’s important to have a good posture on the toilet, the right toilet habits and having the right information at hand if you want to be able to completely empty your bladder. To be able to do this, your pelvic floor muscles need to relax properly. The relaxation will allow the urethra to open up so that the urine can exit in a controlled manner. However, it is possible that the ability to empty your bladder becomes disrupted because of a surgery, overactive or overly tense pelvic floor muscles, an organic prolapse or an eventual incorrectly taught toilet habit. We will talk about the 4 causes and 4 solutions to empty the bladder in this article.
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Being able to urinate properly sounds easy and isn’t an issue for most people. However, this can be a difficult goal to reach for those that do struggle with emptying their bladder. Not being able to empty the bladder properly can cause reoccurring bladder infections. There are a lot of different causes that can cause urinating properly to be a real challenge. The pelvic area is filled with organs, so they have effect on each other. Further examinations are needed to be able to pinpoint your cause. It’s hard to find a treatment if the right cause is unknown.
Everything about urinating.
Generally, everybody urinates and we’ve been doing this our whole lives. Still we know very little about urinating. Do you tense up your pelvic floor muscles or do you relax when you want to urinate? A lot of people will answer ‘tense up’, which isn’t the case. To be able to pee, your pelvic floor muscles need to be able to relax. What we do know is that urine comes from the bladder. The bladder fills up throughout the day and we visit the toilet about 7 times a day on average.
The pelvic floor muscles and urinating.
The muscles that make it possible to pee, if we are talking about a healthy situation, are the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are located at the bottom of your pelvis. Men have 2 openings in this muscle group, and women have 3, Openings for the vagina, urethra and anus are present when we speak of 3 openings. These pelvic floor muscles are active all day. They make sure that the anus, vagina and urethra are closed, because you don’t want to actively squeeze your buttocks shut all day. It’s important to let those muscles relax when you want to urinate properly. Let go of the tension in these muscles and the urine or feces will find their way out.
It’s important to take your time with urinating or pooping. Empty the bladder properly and tilt the pelvis forwards or backwards just to make sure it’s empty. The leftover droplets can exit when you tilt.
Take a look at my articles about toilet habits for every tip and advise. I’m explaining the best way to go to the toilet step by step.
Lets talk abput the 4 causes and 4 solutions to empty your bladder.
4 Causes of not being able to fully empty your bladder.
Cause 1: Prolapse.
The bladder is quick to be influenced by surrounding organs and muscles. The pelvic area is filled with those. Think of all the muscles and tendons, the uterus, the vagina, the nerves in your back, the intestines and the bladder itself. It’s sort of a crossroad for traffic. It can be the case that a prolapse of one of the surrounding organs can cause your urinating issues, a prolapse of the uterus or the bladder itself. The prolapse can cause the bladder to be in a different angle so that the urethra isn’t directly placed under the bladder anymore, maybe the urethra got positioned way higher. This causes the leftover urine to not reach the urethra.
Cause 2: Overactive pelvic floor muscles.
It can also be the case that the pelvic floor muscles are too active. This makes it unable for the sphincter to relax and then urinating properly becomes an issue. To be able to urinate you do need to be able to relax. Urinating is, just like with pooping, only possible when the anus or the muscles around the urethra are relaxed. Your pelvic floor muscles make sure of this. Those pelvic floor muscles are severely tensed up all day to make sure that your urine and feces don’t prematurely exit. It’s necessary to be able to relax those muscles properly once you’re on the toilet. If the pelvic floor muscles are too tense and thus overactive, you can’t urinate properly.
Cause 3: Surgery.
A cause may have started as a solution at first. Surgery can also cause issues with emptying your bladder. Think of TVT-surgery as an example. This surgery stretches the neck of the bladder somewhat open. The right urinal habits and a good posture of the toilet can help you with this. Having a bit of urine left in the bladder is fine, but this shouldn’t take too long either. 100 centiliters is okay for a short period of time, but having it in there for longer can cause you to have infections.
Cause 4: Incorrectly taught toilet habits.
Toilet habits means the way you are going about your toilet visits, mostly focused on the way you’re urinating or pooping. It could be that you’ve held on to those habits your whole life, so it can be the case that these taught habits are the cause of your developed issues. If you aren’t emptying your bladder properly because you aren’t taking your time on the toilet it can cause urine to remain in the bladder. The remaining urine can cause you to have infections.
What are the 4 solutions for an empty bladder? How do you do it?
Solution 1: A good posture on the toilet and/or the right toilet habits.
It’s pretty difficult to be able to empty your bladder when your bladder or uterus have prolapsed. Do take a good posture on the toilet so that you can make sure that the angle of the bladder isn’t even more negatively influenced. Sit straight on the toilet with the feet placed firmly on the floor. Keep your torso straight and try to relax. Take your time. It can also help to tilt your pelvis from front to back after you’ve peed. This ensures the last droplets of urine to exit the bladder. You can also tense up the pelvic floor muscles and fully let go of that tension, you’ll notice that you still lose some urine. If this doesn’t succeed, try to apply some pressure on your bladder. Press your hand on your abdomen, just above the pubic bone. Now you can still manually push out some urine.
Solution 2: Exercises and advises.
I’ve gathered the right exercises for you if you especially struggle with being able to relax on the toilet, or if you’re open for taking a look at your posture and toilet habits. Feel free to take a look. This can be a good first or supporting step before or during treatment of a specialist. Click on the blue words to directly go to the exercises or advises.
Solution 3: Professional help.
In any case, visit your doctor. The doctor can determine what the best solution for you can be. A pelvic therapist, like a pelvic practitioner or a pelvic physical therapist, might be the right option for you if you’re struggling with relaxing. An urologist or gynecologist will also back you up with a suitable treatment plan.
Solution 4: Catheterization.
There’s one last thing if the previous solutions and therapists didn’t help. Self-catheterization. This treatment will be explained to you by a doctor in hospital. It’s an uncomfortable solution but a necessary move to make if nothing else works out. Ask your doctor about more information.
Summary.
There is a lot that you can do yourself so that you can empty your bladder. Let’s sum everything up.
Causes for not being able to empty your bladder:
Cause 1: A prolapse of the bladder or another surrounding organ.
Cause 2: Overactive pelvic floor muscles.
Cause 3: Surgery.
Cause 4: Incorrectly taught toilet habits.
Solutions for emptying your bladder:
Solution 1: A good toilet posture and/or the right toilet habits.
Solution 2: Exercises and advises.
Solution 3: Professional help is in every case a good step towards your solution.
Solution 4: Catheterization is an option in extreme cases.
Last tip for emptying your bladder:
If you think you’re done urinating, it’s smart to still tilt your pelvis backwards and forward. You’ll notice that some remaining urine will still exist. Retract the vagina or penis and relax again. Some urine can still escape once you relax.
And lastly, are you looking for more information?
Hopefully this information was useful to you! If you’re still looking for some more information, feel free to take another look around on the website. It’s filled with in-depth information, tips a webshop and also exercises. I still have a lot of articles with lots of information about other symptoms and issues. Feel free to click on the blue words to take you straight to the right page.
