Why it can be dangerous to pee in the shower

One of those topics you probably never talk about, but that everyone surely recognizes. A quick pee in the shower.

Whoosh, quick 
Easy, quick, hop, down the drain and done. We all do it at some point: in an anonymous survey by the American website Angie’s List, 80 percent of people admit to having let a stream flow while showering. But is that really so smart? Experts say it can be dangerous for women if they always pee in the shower.

So doing it once is absolutely fine, you know. But if you do it every morning and evening, it might get a bit weird. Your brain associates running warm water from the shower with peeing, which might make you need to pee faster when you hear a stream of water running somewhere. Not so handy, when you're washing your hands at the office, for example. So don't train your brain that way before you make yourself a bit incontinent.

Sitting is simply the ‘natural position’ for women. When you sit, your pelvic floor muscles relax and you can fully empty your bladder. If you pee standing, your muscles are still tense and you don't relax 100 percent. So maybe just do a little pee while sitting in the shower? Perhaps a better idea, but then you're still dealing with that conditioning of your brain: don't let yourself get used to peeing as soon as the water flows. Just do it very occasionally, if you really can't help it. But please just sit on the toilet in the morning.

The world
And if you're doing it for environmental reasons? That's understandable too. Flushing the toilet once costs an average of about six liters of water – ridiculously a lot actually, when you think about it. In the Netherlands, the toilet is flushed with pure, clean water; drinking water is not so clean in most countries in Africa. Did you know that every Dutch person uses an average of no less than 123.8 liters of drinking water per day? A crying shame. So do something for the world and sometimes pee in the shower and just save up a few pees in the toilet. You won't notice it, except in your water bill AND you're being green. Look, a little peeing can be so useful.

Source: Men’s Health, Linda