Why Peeing in the Shower Is So Bad for Your b Pelvic Floor

First, let’s talk about how your bladder and pelvic floor work together.
No matter what you’re doing, your bladder and pelvic floor are generally in sync. “When one is on, the other should be off,” Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, PT, DPT, a pelvic floor physical therapist at MomLife Health & Wellness in Massachusetts and author of the forthcoming book Power to the Pelvis, tells SELF. Basically, when your bladder is filling up during the day, your pelvic floor muscles are contracted to “keep the doors closed” and prevent urine from slipping out, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas says. This is why a lot of people can do a squat at the gym, sneeze, or anything really without leaking. When you pee, the roles reverse; your bladder contracts and your pelvic floor relaxes to allow a smooth stream to exit.

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But when you’re peeing in the shower or squatting over a toilet, your pelvic floor can’t relax like it normally does when you’re sitting down. “So what’s happening then is you’re having to basically push a little bit, whether subconsciously or consciously, to bypass that mechanism that’s trying to keep things closed in that standing position,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas says, “and that pushing is not great for your pelvic floor.” (If you are a person with a penis, you generally don’t have this issue because your prostate sits under the bladder and supports it; also, standing to pee is generally your standard operating procedure.)

Why you shouldn’t pee in the shower (or hover over the toilet).
Just like your muscles may get tired after working too hard, your pelvic floor can become less effective if it’s constantly doing too much, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas says. Over time, this can lead to some pelvic floor dysfunction that includes a general weakening of the muscles in that area, as well as incontinence (when pee occasionally leaks out) or an overactive bladder, Dr. Rickey says, which can leave you with that uncomfortable I gotta go right now sensation.

Peeing in the shower regularly can also create a funky association between the sound of running water and urinating, which is inconvenient, to say the least. “I probably hear that at least once a week. I’m not kidding!” Dr. Rickey says. “There’s something about the external environment that gets cross-wired with the urinary reflex that starts in your brain…. It makes you feel that urge to go.”

There’s really no telling how many times you’d have to pee in a shower to notice pelvic floor issues. But considering that most of us shower every day, it may be worth ditching this habit if it’s something you do pretty regularly. “Could be years, could be decades, but you are using your bladder over your lifetime,” Dr. Rickey says, “so there’s a long time for your practices to affect its function.”

There are certain conditions and life events that can cause bladder dysfunction on their own, so mixing that with a lifetime of shower pees and toilet squats can get complicated. For example, chronic constipation, diabetes, childbirth, and menopause can do a number on your pelvic floor, experts tell SELF. “It might just be that one of these things maybe doesn’t greatly increase your risk,” Dr. Rickey says, “but when you put them all together in the right environment, then that sets up a situation where [you can] actually develop bladder issues.”