Best strategy for avoiding urination for overly long period

A friend and i were discussing whether this would be possible - both of us acknowledge that it’s a really bad idea and obviously unhealthy. To my awareness nobody is planning or expecting to do this.

If a person was in a situation where they had no access to restroom facilities for 48 hours, what would their best strategy be for avoiding the need to urinate?

My speculation with no medical knowledge is that the average healthy adult could probably make it through 48 hours if they emptied their bladder immediately before and spent hours, say, -4 through 46 not consuming any liquids. If they also consume no solids, that’s the entirety of the preparation they need to do, and they’d pass the no-pee-48-hours-challenge. That would suck and you’d have the risks of dehydration to face towards the end of it.

Is that even how urination works, biologically, or would they succumb to some other dehydration side effect i’m not considering?

Just urinate in a container or outdoors or anywhere. This is much better than risking kidney damage.

TMI, but (males) try to avoid sexual arousal. An erection can press on the bladder.

(It works the other way, too, as most men know: a very solid erection helps hold urine in. But it’s a short-term approach, and counterproductive to the long-term retention the OP envisions.)

You are correct. Definitely dehydrating yourself will keep you from peeing. I know from personal experience. For 48 hours? Not sure on that part. If you’re dehydrated your body will attempt to hold onto and absorb all the liquid it can. Working against you a bit is that your body will want to clear out toxins filtered out by the kidney and liver and urination is a normal way to get rid of these materials.

Your question is what is the best strategy. Dehydration is a bad strategy and I would say you would need a very strong reason to risk your health by doing this. 48 hours plus the lets say twelve additional hours before the 48 begins is a long time to go without water. Sometimes if you are going in for certain types of operations they will have you stop drinking liquids the night before.

The average person pees 11 times a day. Drinking less will make you pee less but won’t eliminate it. Catheter?

11? I don’t think I go more than 5 or 6 times in a 24 hour period. I don’t think I’m that far off the norm.

I know I pee at least ten times a day, maybe more. I drink a lot of water. If you have a heavy color in your urine where you can’t see through you’re not drinking enough water.

Just get a Stadium Pal.

And don’t wear shorts.

Where did you get this number? It might be true for small women or old men but not average sized or larger non-elderly men.

The 4-7 quote below is more in line with my reality.

“Can’t see through”? If your urine is literally opaque, you’ve probably got more serious medical problems than insufficient hydration.

What about taking on fluids via IV rather than drinking? Would that reduce the need to pass water, perhaps enough to avoid urinating in 48 hours?

In most jurisdictions in the USA, this is a felony or a very serious misdemeanor. People who have done so found themselves posting sex-offender signs on their front lawns for the rest of their lives.

A lot of people are pee-shy, and can’t just pee on the side of the road next to a bus full of passengers. Our culture has made them that way. There are a lot of countries where people have no problem with it.

Just what situation could possibly prevent you from being able to pee for 48 hours?

Needing to stand in line on a public street for the new Limited Edition iPhone Platinum?

I don’t see how. fluids only get to the kidneys via your bloodstream anyway.

Loading up on salt will help–but it is hell on the kidneys. The day after I’ve eaten a salty meal, I hardly pee at all, but the next day or two I pee every couple hours, including waking up to go.

Re: IV fluids. No, that’ll make you pee in a jiffy (as anyone who’s ever had an IV can attest to).

Note that you generate about a cup of water a day just through your metabolic processes: Metabolic water. Water is a by-product of the energy-generating chemistry in your body. (Incidentally, this is why some animals can get by with little or no drinking water.)

Then again, though, you’re also constantly excreting water via your lungs (which, contrary to popular misconceptions, are by far the body’s primary excretory organs).

What do military snipers do?

I’ve been told. Military snipers, the dedicated ones, will soil themselves. It can take hours and hours of waiting and you don’t want to give away your location while waiting for the one golden opportunity to take out an important target.