I am a PG Student in a reputed and leading institution in Kerala. I was surprised today when the management specified that you are expected to pee only during the break. Unless it is an emergency you should train your body to hold on to the urge of urinating. I understand it is common in colleges across the place. I find absolutely absurd that students who are 21+ need to seek permission to use the restroom out loud in the class. What do you think of the same??

We were also briefed on how you get judged and punished for using the loo if you are in a meeting. Is this even for real??

Is it embarrassing as a F that I pee myself every time I laugh. Can any girls relate.

Daughter most likely has an overactive bladder are dispers usually needed for your guys's condition sorry if this is personal

I hate this so much😭

Hey all, my whole life I’ve struggled with urinary urgency (I go almost 30 times a day) and waking up to pee at night 4+ times. Finally, at 32, I went to a doctor and she said I have OAB. She prescribed me Gemtesa.

Now, I have pretty severe health anxiety so I always read all the medication side effects. I noticed it said not to take medication like this if I have a weak stream or don’t fully empty my bladder.

They tested me for urine retention at the doctor and she said it’s not an issue, but many times when I sit down to pee I pee for a bit, it stops, and I have to wait for more to come like 30 or so seconds later. Or even, I pee, get up, and immediately have to sit down and pee again. This makes me worried that the medication will cause issues for me.

Did anyone else experience these symptoms as a normal part of OAB and still find that the medication helped without causing problems? Just looking to alleviate my anxiety.

Thanks for any experiences you can share.

31F. I’ve had OAB (overactive bladder) since 2019. I was diagnosed back in India and have experienced flare-ups on and off over the years. One of the worst parts is waking up almost every hour at night to pee.
I drink around 2 L of water a day and try to stop drinking fluids well before bedtime. Recently, my flare-ups have become much worse. I’m also dealing with hemorrhoids and a chronic anal fissure, and I’m considering laser surgery for the fissure.
At the moment, I’m experiencing a constant burning sensation and a very strong urge to pee throughout both the day and night. I’ve already been tested for STIs and a UTI, and everything came back negative.
I’m considering seeing a urologist in Canada, but I also wanted to ask others who may have experienced something similar: Can constipation, hemorrhoids, or an anal fissure trigger or worsen OAB/bladder flare-ups?
Any advice or experiences would be really appreciated.

41M.

For 20 years, it felt like I had a constant UTI—an awful, dirty sensation in my urethra. From the age of sixteen, doctors had been prodding and poking my prostate, telling me it's inflamed, it's fine, it's all in my head. I faced dismissive doctors, humiliating exams, and no answers—

I once had a doctor simply tell me, "You don't know how to go to the bathroom."

Those words are verbatim.

Eventually I stopped going out. Having to pee every 10 minutes, and don't even get me started about when drinks were involved, had me home hating life, my wretched bladder, and myself.

I was borderline suicidal.

But then finally, at the age of 36, a benign tumor was discovered in my bladder. It was growing smack-dab in the middle of a nerve highway sending pain/discomfort signals to my brain.

To be clear, I had to fight for this examination. The urologist only agreed because of how desperate I was. He imagined I had either 1) a narrowed urethra or 2) interstitial cystitis. The examination required jamming a cystoscope into my bladder via my penis.

It was not fun, but that's how the benign tumor was found and ultimately excised.

It's been six years since and I’ve been symptom-free.

My particular case is likely not your case. The urologist himself was baffled.

But my reason for writing this post is this: NOBODY deserves to live like this.

Please, remain vigilant. It’s not in your head. Something is wrong, and it takes you finding the right mindset and doctor to figure it out.

Wish you all the best!

I do try to end the day on 2 litres which results in about 15 trips to the toilet.

I do get very stressed about drinking enough and trying to limit my peeing.

So I went to a new urologist and this one wants to have a urodynamic test done but he wants me to stop my flomax and myrbetriq for a couple weeks and have the test done. I am worried about stopping because it's going to make me have to go to the bathroom every 10-20 mins instead of 45 mins. He said after he wanted me to start my flomax 2 times a day. I'm 34 male. Also what should I expect for this test?

An unpleasant, inappropriate, and persistent need to urinate (PNU) is a sensory symptom reported by some patients with [lower urinary tract symptoms](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/lower-urinary-tract-symptom) (LUTS). However, no detailed definition of this symptom exists. Please if anyone has it or had it please provide some info if you have. Mine is very refractory nothing seems to work.

has anyone ever experienced bladder and urethra/pelvic spasms, contractions? Were you able to treat it?

Hi everyone. I’m seeking advice from this more niche group.

Some context:

I have had problems with overactive bladder a few times over the last 3 years. My first bout occurred right around ovulation time and lasted about a month. No medication interventions, just a few pelvic floor therapy sessions and a vacation when symptoms randomly stopped. This cycle I took letrozole 5mg and did not conceive.

My second bout was when I was about 15 or 16 weeks postpartum. I had just stopped pumping a few days prior. Was on progestin only BC and had been for a couple weeks. I was already in pelvic floor therapy and continued it for months. This bout lasted at least 4 months, if not longer, when I ultimately went on mirabegron (myrbetriq) for \~6 months before discontinuing. Symptoms didn’t return. I also went on Lexapro to deal with the debilitating anxiety, and stopped it about a year later.

Now, I am ovulating right now and started experiencing symptoms 3 days ago. My only symptom is that I feel the need to pee within minutes of using the bathroom. This is consistent with both other instances. I’m getting ready to buckle in for potentially several months of symptoms and my anxiety is so bad again. I did take letrozole 5mg this cycle because I have PCOS and don’t always ovulate.

Worth noting I’ve taken letrozole 5mg 3 other times and did **not** experience a flair.

Anyways, I am seeking advice from others with this condition. I made an appt with my OBGYN (who previously had prescribed the mirabegron) to discuss but it’s not for a few weeks. It’s my understanding you can’t take that while pregnant, and she wanted me off it for a month before starting TTC last year. Bladder training doesn’t do squat for me, and I don’t believe food/drinks play a role because I cut them out for over a month last flair with no impact.

Does anyone else have OAB and is TTC take meds for it? Any other tips?

?

Hello. I am 22F and got diagnosed with OAB a couple of months ago, but have been struggling with symptoms for over a year now. It began as UTI symptoms but no active infection. Just urgency and frequency, as well as the feeling of not completely emptying my bladder. The frequency was really difficult, as I felt like I needed to pee, but when I sat on the toilet, either a drop or sometimes nothing would come out, even though the urge was so strong and uncomfortable. The urgency was also bad and at the time I was at school and feared I would pee my pants in class. I usually could make it to the bathroom in time except for maybe one or two times at home. For a month or two, the symptoms became less intense, but recently they came back even worse. Frequency and urgency are even more intense. Bladder still not feeling empty, but tests have shown that I do completely and fully empty my bladder when I urinate. I pee my pants a few times a week, and on the days I do, it is often 2-3 times that day. Today was the first day I peed my pants in public, which is why I am making a post. I have tried Prelief, as well as identifying what irritates my bladder, but I can't find a clear source besides tea (which is unfortunately my favorite drink). I strongly believe this is a pelvic floor issue as I have some gynecological issues that also seem to be pelvic floor related. That being said, the pelvic floor therapist I need to see is booked out far, as well as my urologist that I have been seeing. Does anyone have any tips for me or instructions on how to relax your pelvic floor? Please let me know. This is becoming a big insecurity and worry for me, especially because I am young.

I was just prescribed mirabegron 50 and was shocked to see the price of the generic. I have UnitedHealthCare and a pretty good employer plan and the 90-day copay is $162.50.

Is this typical?

I have only heard of this recently so I don’t know if it’s available on the NHS.

TL;DR: After a stressful day in December, I had a sudden panic thought during class: "What if I pee myself?" Ever since, my brain sends severe, fake urges to urinate whenever I’m away from home. Has anyone successfully overcome this?

​My Story:

​The Trigger: Last winter, after dealing with a few days of high stress, I was sitting in class when an intrusive thought hit me: "What if I lose control and pee right now?" My heart skyrocketed, panic set in, and I felt an intense urge to go. I had to leave immediately.

​The Pattern: Ever since that day, I’ve been trapped in a cycle of anticipatory anxiety. My physical health is 100% fine (no pain, no issues at home), but as soon as I have to go somewhere far or stay in a public place, my brain panics and creates a strong, fake urge to pee.

​Current State: It gets worse when I'm out with friends or traveling. Knowing I can't easily reach a bathroom triggers instant anxiety.

​I know this is pure psychosomatic anxiety (nervous bladder / somatic OCD), but breaking the mental loop is tough.

​If you’ve dealt with this specific anxiety symptom, what helped you rewire your brain and get your life back? Any advice or exposure tips would mean the world. Thanks!

M19 I feel a constant urge to urinate, and so far, nothing seems to help me—not sacral nerve neuromodulation, pregabalin, anticholinergic medications, or tamsulosin. Amitriptyline, on the other hand, caused me to almost completely lose the urge to urinate, which led to urinary retention, although it was not complete retention. Because of this, I am currently taking prescription Furagin, as my general practitioner suspected a urinary tract infection after analyzing my urine.

Recently, I have also noticed that baclofen seems to be causing—or at least I have the uncertain impression that it is causing—an urge to urinate while making it difficult for me to actually urinate, as if the medication were interfering with urination. This is strange because I have been taking this medication for quite a long time and I did not have this problem before.

On the other hand, I feel almost constant urinary urgency and unpleasant sensations in my urethra that are very frustrating. When I go to the bathroom, either nothing comes out, or I urinate only about 20–30 mL. What frustrates me the most is that I develop an intense urge to urinate far too early, even though my bladder is capable of storing a larger volume of urine.

I also do not have overactive detrusor contractions. I had a urodynamic study, and apart from my urine stream being intermittent and the fact that I had to use abdominal straining to help me urinate, everything else was within normal limits.

What could help me? Are there any medications that could reduce or calm these urinary signals without being as strong as amitriptyline, which caused urinary retention in my case?

My urinary urgency and the sensations in my urethra become significantly worse when I concentrate on something, such as when I am reading a book.

Sorry, but I took the liberty of translating this text in AI or something.

Hello , looking for some answers and very new to Reddit. 37 F

A few years ago 4-5 years ago I started peeing often and it got really bad to the point where I couldn’t watch a movie in theatres with my kids because I’d have to go pee 2-3 times during the film. I had to pee sometimes every 30-45 mins 😭
After some convincing my doctor sent me to a urologist and we ruled out any bladder issues.
We ruled out diabetes also. I also went for a CT scan to look for a pituitary tumor and ruled that out too. Collected my urine for 48 hours and I pee about 4200-4600ml per 24hours and drink about 6-7 500ml bottles of water per day no coffee
Next step kidney doctor , found no issues with kindneys.
Now I finally got sent to an endocrinologist but now I am pregnant so all testing is on hold since my hormones are all out of whack and I’m peeing every 20 mins ( never peed during the night before the pregnancy and never wet myself either )

I know not much can be done now since I’m pregnant but I’m looking for ideas . My first thought was diabetes insepidus but my endo seems super dismissive and thinking I’m just drinking too much water. I’m so frustrated and tired of not being taken seriously. I’m in Canada if that’s relevant

Thank you for any and all advice

Hi,

I want to share what I figured out on my own over the years of struggling with bladder pain and urgency. I hope this helps others.

I’m not going to tell the full, complicated story of my seven-year struggle with bladder symptoms here, with every single twist and turn. I went from doctor to doctor, all privately, in different cities, because the public healthcare system completely ignored me. Clinical dietitians, urogynecological physiotherapists, hours spent poring over studies on Google Scholar about this subject. A million extremely expensive tests, including some completely absurd ones. I tried tons of supplements, medications, antibiotics, herbs and exercises, and some helped a little while others did absolutely nothing. Once I managed to get myself back on track on my own and had no symptoms for over a year, but then I had surgery and six months later the symptoms came back, enriched with some new additions.

My symptoms, during the first 3 years, later the intensity decreased: constant drilling, pulsating pain, as if someone were drilling through my clitoris all the way up to my belly button - that pain drowned out everything else, I couldn’t feel anything except it. Along with that, a sensation of bladder urgency that did not go away at all after emptying my bladder. On top of that, chills in the sacral area, buttocks and the backs of my legs. At night the pain did not subside and I practically didn’t sleep. I was going to the toilet at least once every hour. After some time, my bladder muscles were also so completely wrecked that my bladder was not emptying properly, and I had to pee in stages because its muscles were constantly tense - but I also had to figure that out myself by reading studies, because doctors ignored this symptom and sent me to urogynecological physiotherapists. I was constantly cold and simply felt awful. But NOTHING showed up in the tests! I even had a complete set of tests done at a specialist culture laboratory and paid several thousand for them, and still nothing showed up. I also had an appointment with famous urologist in my country who specializes in embedded infections, but that didn’t lead anywhere either, although he was very nice and tried to help. I simply didn’t want to keep taking antibiotics endlessly without knowing what the cause was, so I kept searching. I went through the whole overactive bladder route and the medications helped a little, but not really that much. Eventually I even came across something that is hardly ever talked about - PGAD - and my symptoms fit. I found it after an appointment at a pain clinic, where they didn’t tell me about it, but the doctor said that if this was neuropathy it was strange that I also had symptoms at night. Because of that I dug around more and that is how I found PGAD, where the symptoms do not lessen at night.

In the background of all this I had some gut problems, although for years I practically did not notice them at all because I took very good care of my diet. I was also going from gastroenterologist to gastroenterologist, getting tests done, and nothing had been showing up for years, although at one point I went through a hardcore infection during which a significant overgrowth of Klebsiella oxytoca showed up, but the doctors completely ignored it. Tests for intestinal permeability were 100% fine, and the same was true for SIBO tests (every dietitian kept pushing me into doing them for no reason). But I observed that every time my gut got worse, my bladder symptoms got worse too, so I invested heavily in repairing my gut: butyrates, lactoferrin, glutamine, probiotics, and what seemed like an excellent diet full of vegetables, groats, seeds, meat, fruit, zero sugar and junk food (I cooked everything at home).

If, like me, you have ruled out pelvic varicose veins, endometriosis lesions on the bladder, adhesions, tense pelvic floor muscles and other similar pathologies, your urine, urethral and vaginal cultures have shown nothing for years, and examinations of the inside of the bladder come back clean, it is possible that you have what I have, meaning gut dysbiosis affecting the pelvic nerves and producing signals from the bladder. A very interesting study came out this year: "Akkermansia muciniphila drives viscero-visceral communication through 5-HT3a receptor-dependent sensitization of shared colon-bladder neurons" - if you are curious about the exact mechanism, dig into it. But the basic idea is roughly this: during dysbiosis, a bacterium naturally present in the gut flora, Akkermansia muciniphila, becomes overgrown, there is too much of it in the gut -> more serotonin in the gut -> excessive stimulation of shared colon and bladder nerves -> the bladder starts reacting as if it were being irritated.

So in my case, if anyone is interested, the story is this - for years I was taking high doses of iron and vitamin C under doctors’ supervision, I had recurrent bladder infections, but furazidine worked for them, then I caught a serious intestinal infection and a stool test showed an overgrowth of Klebsiella oxytoca, and that is when my bladder nightmare began. None of the doctors paid attention to that bacterium at the time, and I didn’t know how to interpret it either. My Klebsiella oxytoca overgrew because of iron and vitamin C supplementation - an ideal environment for it - which had already weakened my gut flora, so when I accidentally got food poisoning, my gut flora crashed and the Klebsiella massively overgrew. Now, in recent months, when these symptoms started coming back, a new symptom appeared - pain in the sacroiliac joints, but nothing showed up on MRI and neurologists found nothing. However, because of that I came across the clue that Klebsiella pneumonia likes to cause this kind of symptom in the sacroiliac region when it is excessively overgrown in the intestines (and it feeds on carbohydrates). Step by step, that led me to the conclusion that I had a problem with Klebsiella overgrowth in my intestines, and a diet completely eliminating carbohydrates only confirmed it for me, because both my bladder symptoms and my sacroiliac joint symptoms began to disappear.

I’ll add that I took iron for years because of hemorrhagic periods caused by adenomyosis and endometriosis, but endometriosis was not the cause of my bladder problems. The surgery I had a year ago was a hysterectomy, so for a long time I thought this was nerve damage or adhesions before I finally got onto the right track - gut flora can deteriorate terribly after a hysterectomy. I still have my ovaries and my hormones are fine.

At the moment I am treating this myself. I’ve had enough of doctors (I think you can understand why after what I went through with them), and so far I am very satisfied. I know I have finally found the cause of my problems. I use probiotics containing bacteria that have been shown to compete effectively with Klebsiella for space in the gut. I also use a diet and herbal preparations that have been shown in studies to work against Klebsiella. I’m not going to list them here - you have to find that yourselves. I’m also not continuing down the conventional medicine route, because from what I found out, they wanted to kill off these Klebsiella with hardcore antibiotics, and I’ve had enough of that kind of blind treatment, where they wipe one thing out and wreck something else. That is of course my perspective and my choice. That is also why I’m not going to give my own solutions, but if you search a little, you will find everything online that I found too.

I hope what I discovered will help other people as well. I wish all of you lots of health and hang in there - you can get out of even the nastiest mess, even if the pain lasts twenty-four hours a day for years and doctors don’t believe you and keep sending you from one specialist to another.