What are the dangers of holding urine for a long time? Will it lead to bladder cancer?

Author: Zhang Yong, Chief Physician, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University

Reviewer: Zhang Kai, Chief Physician, Peking University First Hospital

People have to urinate every day. Although urination seems simple, it is actually a complex physiological process.

Do you know how the urge to urinate arises? And how urine is discharged?

1. What is the urination process like?

After the kidneys produce urine, it flows into the bladder through the ureters.

When the urine stored in the bladder reaches a certain amount, the stretch receptors in the bladder will become excited and transmit the impulse to the lower central nervous system, that is, the spinal cord, through the afferent nerves. The impulse is then further transmitted to the brain, and the brain knows that it is necessary to urinate, and the person will feel the urge to urinate.

After going to the toilet, the brain will tell the lower centers that it is time to urinate. The lower centers transmit the urination signal to the bladder receptors through the efferent nerves. After the bladder receives the signal, the bladder muscles will contract and the urethral sphincter will relax. At this time, the urine will be discharged through the sphincter.

Figure 1 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

This is the entire urination process.

Well, if you don’t urinate after you feel the urge, that is, you hold your urine, many people have had this experience or practice, for example: it’s too cold in the morning, you don’t want to get up, hold it for half an hour before going to the toilet; the toilet is so far away, hold it for a while and go home; this video is really good, watch it before going; finish this work first, then go to the toilet...

Two hours have passed...I don't seem to need to pee anymore.

Whether you hold your urine actively or passively, holding your urine is a bad habit and it is harmful.

2. What are the dangers of holding urine?

Holding urine for a long time can cause urination difficulties.

Because holding urine for a long time will cause the stretch receptors on the surface of the bladder to fatigue. When the impulse is transmitted to the receptors after fatigue, the excitement will be reduced, resulting in weakened detrusor contraction. At the same time, holding urine for a long time will also cause the bladder muscles to be stretched for a long time. If they suddenly contract, they cannot immediately return to their physiological state.

In addition, holding urine for a long time can cause urinary tract infection. Bacteria will flow back from the urethra into the bladder, causing urinary tract infection, and in severe cases even kidney infection.

Holding urine for a long time may also cause bladder tumors. Holding urine for a long time is closely related to the occurrence of bladder tumors. Studies have shown that people who have the habit of holding urine have a 3-5 times higher risk of bladder cancer.

Clinically, there is a young bladder tumor patient in his twenties, he is a violinist, one of the important risk factors for bladder tumor is holding urine. Usually, violin rehearsals or performances are very long, which makes it inconvenient to urinate in time. After holding urine for a long time, the desire to urinate becomes lower and lower, and the bladder will be damaged.

Figure 2 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

There are many dangers of holding urine for a long time, which can lead to difficulty in urination, urinary tract infection, bladder tumors, etc. Among them, urinary tract infection and bladder tumors can also cause urination dysfunction and affect the quality of life.

3. What are the symptoms of urinary dysfunction? What are the complications?

The core organ of urination is the bladder.

The bladder has two functions. One is to store the urine secreted by the kidneys in the upper urinary tract, which is medically called urine storage. The other is to excrete the stored urine, which is medically called urination.

Urinary dysfunction means that these two functions are damaged, such as the bladder cannot store urine or urinate. The symptoms are the symptoms of urinary dysfunction, such as:

Frequent urination. A normal person urinates about 8-10 times a day, but patients with frequent urination may urinate 15 or even 30 times.

Urgent urination. For example, if you want to go to the toilet during an interview, a normal person can hold it in for a while, but a patient with urgent urination must stop the interview to go to the toilet. This is urinary urgency.

Frequent urination at night. Normal people usually urinate 0-2 times at night. If the frequency of nocturnal urination is more than 2 times, you must get up to go to the toilet at night.

These are storage phase symptoms.

Symptoms during urination, such as:

Difficulty urinating. When urinating, it is difficult to urinate and the urine cannot be discharged quickly.

Urinary hesitancy. It takes a while for urine to be discharged when urinating, which is medically known as urinary hesitancy.

The urine stream becomes thinner.

Recently, especially in the past decade or so, medical scientists have divided urinary dysfunction into a third symptom, called post-urination symptoms, such as urethral pain after urination and dripping after urination.

To sum it up simply, urinary dysfunction means that urine cannot be stored properly and cannot be discharged, and after discharge, it continues to occur.

When urination dysfunction occurs, the bladder stores a lot of urine and cannot discharge it, but the kidneys still produce new urine, which cannot move through the ureters into the bladder, which will lead to hydronephrosis in the long run. Long-term urination dysfunction can cause urinary tract infection, pyelonephritis, etc. In addition, long-term urination dysfunction can also cause epididymitis, vas deferens, etc., affecting the health of the reproductive system.

After reading this, do you think holding your urine is terrible? For the sake of your own health, it is recommended that you do not hold your urine actively or because of laziness.

To protect your bladder, start by drinking more water, urinating more often, and not holding your urine.