How to Make Yourself Pee

Having a pee is one of the most important ways we stay healthy and keep our bodies functioning. When your body is ‘pee-shy’ it can be painful, and also embarrassing and uncomfortable. When you feel you need to pee, but just can’t, it can add to stress levels and then you end up in a vicious circle, as the stress on your body makes it even less likely to pee.

Some sports require you to pee on demand. Maybe you’re a long-distance runner who needs to stay hydrated during a race. Or maybe you need to provide a urine sample for a drug test. In both cases, knowing how to make yourself pee can be essential.

Or maybe you have just a short chance to pee before you are going on a long journey with no facilities. Whatever the personal situation, whether male or female, being able to make yourself pee can be socially and personally useful.

Additionally, if you suffer from urine retention, or have difficulty going normally, making yourself pee can alleviate discomfort and help you assess any underlying issues.

When it might be necessary

On occasion, it may be medically necessary to control peeing, for example if you are undergoing a medical procedure, like an ultrasound, your doctor might require you to have a full bladder.

Or if you’re taking a drug test, you might be asked to produce a sample.

You might also be in the intermission of a concert and need to pee during a long queue of others who are also waiting. On such occasions the tension in your bladder can rise, as you can feel you are being watched and have to pee quickly, which is not a feeling that activates the bladder.

Symptoms of Not Urinating

Signs of dehydration

Feeling constantly thirsty is a sign you have been dehydrated. In addition, check your urine color. If it is dark, that usually means you are insufficiently hydrated. If your pee is darker than usual it’s an indication that you’re not getting enough fluids. Aim to have your urine as a wheat shade, or even clear. If your urine is clear, it means you have been hydrating well.

Dehydration can also lead to your skin starting to feel dry or tight. Plus, you may find yourself feeling dizzy or lightheaded. These are signs that your body is in need of hydration, which is best served by water.

Dehydration can make it much harder to pee, so the first thing to focus on to ensure regular peeing is to have good levels of hydration.

Pain when attempting to urinate

Peeing should not be unduly painful. That can be a sign of something serious, so it’s worth getting checked out if you’re feeling any type of discomfort. You may be suffering from a bladder infection, kidney stones, prostate problems, or an infection in your urinary tract.

All of these conditions are serious, and if the pain is persistent you must consult a doctor to identify and treat the underlying cause.

In some cases, the pain may be caused by something as simple as too much urine building up in the bladder. In this case, drinking more fluids may help the body flush out more urine and make it easier to pass.

Other home remedies like taking a warm bath or using a hot water bottle against the lower abdomen may also help alleviate the ache, though these are not long term solutions to sustained issues with peeing.

Ways to Make Yourself Pee

Increase your fluid intake

As we said, fluids need to be put in to come out. You must therefore ensure excellent hydration. Increasing your fluid intake is a fundamental step. Water is the ultimate help here, but you can also make peeing on demand more likely by drinking herbal teas, green teas, eating fruits, and drinking fruit juices.

Avoid coffee or fizzy high sugar drinks, which are of much less value.

Aim for around 1.5-2 liters of water or good fluids a day, but be sure not to overload your system, as this can cause the body distress. Rehydrate gradually.

Urge suppression exercises

The frustration in needing to pee, but not peeing, is significant. Urge suppression exercises may sound strange, given that you want to pee, but if you can develop some skill with them they can help you pee on demand.

These exercises involve learning to recognise and understand your body’s sensations when you feel the urge to urinate, and then managing to consciously delay it. Make sure to do this within reason, as you do not want to cause yourself any harm. But if you do this moderately, it builds up your bladder’s capacity to hold urine for longer and this helps you control more easily when you decide to pee.

By taking charge of your bladder, it makes it easier to pee when you decide you want to, and it makes you less pee-shy.

Massage your bladder area

Massage may be the answer to motivating your bladder into action. First, place your hands on your abdomen just below your navel and above your pubic bone. Gently press and massage that area in a circular motion. Many people find that when they massage this area, it helps to relax the bladder and makes it easier to pee.

Usually, massaging for about three minutes is enough to stimulate your peeing instincts to flow.

Try taking a warm bath or using a heating pad

These methods are tried and tested over many decades. Though they might sound strange, they often work. When exposed to heat, your body increases its production of a hormone. This hormone helps your body store and conserve water, meaning that it constricts your urethra to slow the flow of urine.

When this happens, the pressure in your bladder increases, making it easier to pass urine. So though it might initially hold you back from peeing, it puts you in fuller control of when you pee, which helps you then develop the mental habits of feeling in control of your bladder’s movements.

Use drugs to relax your bladder

Drugs can be an effective way to increase urination, but their use should definitely be medically supervised or only engaged in after advice. Drugs like oxybutynin are sometimes prescribed by doctors to help with an overactive bladder, but they can also have adverse side effects, so be aware of these.

You also run a small risk of dependency, which will set back your journey towards enabling your body to develop the necessary muscular and mental exercises to pee on demand.

Tips for Success

Don’t force it – take your time

Relaxation and feeling in control of your muscles is very important when it comes to peeing. It is not just about the pure functioning of the bladder. It is also about psychology and muscular and mental relations.

Try concentrating on the feeling of needing to pee and really focus on that sensation. The more you pay attention to the sensation, the more likely you are to feel it, to the point where you can’t ignore it any longer and the body enacts what it has been imagining.

Drink plenty of fluids

Most adults need to drink around 1.5 liters of water a day. But it can also depend on the climate, the heat, your lifestyle, exercise routines and any other health conditions you may have. Generally speaking, six to eight glasses of water per day is recommended. However, almost certainly you will need more than that if you are in a hot climate or have been exercising.

Make sure, however, to avoid caffeinated and alcoholic drinks, as these act as diuretics and can make you more dehydrated. If you are looking to pee when you want to pee, the fundamental truth is that you need the right fluids going in.

Meditate and practice deep breathing

People underestimate the power of breath. There are breathing exercises that can really help. One of these is to keep your eyes closed and inhale for four or five seconds, then hold your breath for seven seconds, and then exhale for eight to ten seconds. This will instantly make you feel more at ease and calmer.

It’s very likely that meditating and practicing deep breathing can help reduce any stress or anxiety you may be experiencing, which can in turn assist you in urinating more readily.

Avoid drinking alcohol or caffeine

Though we drink a lot of them, these drinks are not good for us when it comes to helping us pee. Both alcohol and caffeine are powerful diuretics, which means they can increase your need to urinate, and they therefore undermine other tactics and approaches you are taking to enable you to be in better control of your peeing routines.

In addition, if you drink a lot of either one, it can severely dehydrate your body, resulting in even more difficulty peeing.

If all else fails, speak to your doctor

There are many reasons why you may benefit from chatting with a doctor when it comes to peeing. These may be medical or psychological. Many people fear public bathrooms, or they have issues about their body that mean they shun its health.

Others have fears of tap water and therefore drink less than they should. For others, it is addiction to alcohol or coffee that undermines their control of their bladder.

Bladder control is also harder if you are overweight, and some women find it harder as they approach the menopause. Both men and women can also develop leaky bladders as they age and may need advice on sanitary assistance.

Give things a try

Whatever your individual situation, if you are having real difficulty peeing when you want to pee or are worried that you are not peeing enough, see a doctor.

But before you do so, don’t forget to check your hydration and try out some of the exercises we have suggested. They may make a real difference to you.