Is it unhealthy to "hold it in"?

[DirtyKash]

Until the very, very last moment when you can no longer … Before then, a person can probably hold it in for, I don’t know, a half hour? Is it true that it can be unhealthy for you? What’s the deal with this?

[frankie_pentangeli]

fart? cum? opinion?
please help.

[DirtyKash]

Urine.

[Q.E.D]

I don’t believe it’s unhealthy to hold it in. Eventually, hydraulic pressure will empty the bladder, whether you want it to or not. It can certainly be unconfortable to hold it but I don’t think it’s actually dangerous in any way.

[adirondack_mike]

From experience - it may not be unhealthy but I was a hurtin’ pup for a few days.

[aerodave]

A half hour? Bah.

I’ve had to hold it for a few hours at a time…measured from onset of “I think I need to pee” through “Good God I gotta go!” all the way to “Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…”

[stockton]

I think it’s really a case of…

oops!

urgent call on line 1. Gotta go. Hold that thought…

[x-ray_vision]

From [this[/ur] site:

Holding in urine, then, can cause kidney stones and bladder stones, as. well as lead to heart, circulatory, and metabolic disorders due to reduced kidney function, But there is more it can do, which relates to the distention of the bladder.

From [url=http://yourmedicalsource.com/library/cystitis/CYS_causes.htm]this](http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/10/08/kidney_stones_bladder_infection_prostate_enlargement.htm) site:

What Increases the Risk for Cystitis?

Some things you do or conditions you have can increase your risk for cystitis. These include:

Infrequent urination in both men and women. “Holding it in” causes urine to stagnate, which helps bacteria flourish and grow.

[don_t_ask]

It’s more of a problem with children. Holding in can lead to an increase in urinary tract infections (especially with girls) as the flow of urine rinses away bacteria. Later in life both boys and girls are more susceptible due to holding in because it stretches the bladder and it may not be able to expel all it’s contents. Mind you problems such as bed wetting are sometimes treated by teaching holding in to stretch the bladder.

[ronbo]

Holding it in much longer than you are accustomed to can cause a cramp in your muscles. This can be painful, just like any other muscle cramp.

However, holding it too long or too often can cause more serious problems for the kidneys from the urine back-up.

[Xema]

I was once told by a doctor that a full bladder puts you at risk for additional injury in a car or plane crash.

[El_Cid_Viscoso]

I remember a kid getting a DOR from Quantico because of incontinence. He’d always asserted his leaky pipe was directly attributable to the time when our platoon was forced to suffer for hours, without a head-call, inside a warehouse. We were waiting for our orders and I can remember this guy moaning, very softly.

For the next week, my soon-to-be-departed compadre had a rough and messy time of it.

So did this guy.

[El_Cid_Viscoso]

From the link, just FYI:

A full, distended bladder for long periods of time could cause a stretching of the bladder muscle, thus leading to a more floppy bladder which can not contract as well as before being stretched. This imparts some laziness to the bladder to empty properly. This usually takes a few weeks to resolve.

A call to my urologist confirmed the “lazy bladder” story.

[Armilla]

Well, there’s always the rumours about how Tycho Brahe checked out.