Yeah, this is a serious question. I’m asking primarily about the male urethra, but I suppose the question could apply to the female version as well.
The reason for my question: I spent a few years living in a men’s homeless shelter, along with other men of all ages from 18 to 70+. There were communal bathrooms, with two or three toilet stalls in each. Over the years, there were naturally many times when I was in one stall while another man used the adjoining stall. It was usually possible to tell who was in the next stall; living long-term with these other men made their footsteps and the sound of their movements familiar.
So I noticed a distinct difference in the sound of urination, depending on the age of the person urinating. I’m nearly 40, and of course I’m familiar with the noise I create when I urinate into a water-filled toilet bowl. Other men near my age make a similar sound, judging from experience. I never noticed much difference in the sound when the person in the adjacent stall was younger.
However, if the man in the next stall was, say, older than his late fifties, the difference in sound was dramatic. It would sound like somebody turned on a garden hose in there! This sound was consistent from one older man to another. By the sound, it was clear to me that a larger volume of urine was hitting the toilet water, at a more rapid rate than my own urination.
Is this the result of a larger-diameter urethra, or are there other factors involved? Do older men simply urinate less frequently than young men, and so urinate with a higher pressure that would account for the louder sound? Am I imagining things?
Actually, if any change, the volume and flow of the urine in older males would be less due to BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia or enlarged prostate). This decreases the volume and flow from the bladder into the uretha due to partial blockage.
So if the sounds are louder, it could be because they are urinating directly into the water at the bottom of the urinal and now at the urinal wall.
I would absolutely agree that the general pattern of aging is for the rate and velocity of urination to decrease. I’m sure the older men themselves would tell you the same if you asked, it’s an ill-kept secret – a secret only to the relatively young, and not often even then. This is why literal “pissing matches” are a game for the young or those feeling age coming on.
TMI for those who want it:
Prostatic hyperplasia, benigh or otherwise, is so common that among physicians it is said that you will get it if you live long enough.
As a young medical student on a VA hospital rotation, I dashed into the men’s room between appointments, let loose a liter or so, and dashed out under a minute, as I always had. A voice from a nearby stall yelled “Sure, show off, doc–enjoy it while you can!” Laughter erupted from nearby stalls that I had thought empty. I had many similar experiences in the next few years. When I did Urology, the (single occupant) men’s rooms on the floor were always busy from 9-5, because patients commonly took 15 minutes to “fully empty” their bladder.
Older men often experience urgency (a pressing ‘need to go’) and frequency (a need to go often) because they don’t fully empty their bladders, and have more residual urine than they did when they were young. Other medical conditions, like diabetes, also play a role, as do many Medications (not just diuretics for hypertension-- quite a few drugs upset the delicate adrenergic/cholinergic symphony of urination, a dance that you’ll never appreciate until it stumbles]
Urologists can do wonders with narrow spots in the urethra – in the Navy I had one use a set of long slender “dialators” that ranged from the thickness of a pencil lead all the way up to something thicker than a pencil :eek:. Quite an experience. Definitely racehorse material after that.
Of course, two years later the stricture returned and a different doc had to go at it with another long slender rod, with a blade at the end… Things have been just ducky for the past 15 years
