If you typically wait hours to go pee, you should rethink that habit, experts suggest.

Holding your pee in every so often generally can be harmless, but there are some cases in which the behavior can pose threats to your health, especially if it’s a regular, learned behavior, said Dr. Jason Kim, clinical associate professor of urology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York.
These risks stem from the reasons and the way we urinate in the first place.

“There’s a complex neurological system that controls urination,” added Kim, who is also director of the university’s Women’s Pelvic Health and Continence Center. “Your kidneys make urine, and then (it’s) funneled down two tubes called ureters to the bladder. I’d say normal bladder capacity is about 400 to 600 (cubic centimeters).”

Once the bladder is about half full, nerve receptors tell the brain it’s time to pee, and the brain tells your bladder to hold it until a socially acceptable time to urinate, Kim said. That’s when the brain will send signals that relax the urethral sphincter muscle and make the bladder muscles contract to squeeze urine out, Kim said.


“We were built this way because if we just peed as we were walking along, let’s say, the road, our predators would smell us,” said Dr. David Shusterman, board certified urologist at NY Urology in New York City.

“Urine has concentrated toxins in it, which is why your body is trying to get rid of it — and so what ends up happening is you want to hold the toxins in because they have a smell to them, and you want to be able to excrete the toxins in a time where you’re more protected.”