# Piss Shiver **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943 "2012-01-28T02:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/1 "2012-01-28T02:41:21Z")
What progress has been made in determining the cause of this phenomenon? Only guys want to know. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/2 "2012-01-28T02:43:30Z")
Piss is hot. If you take a huge piss you’ll lose a lot of heat in a short amount of time. You shiver. This wasn’t scientific at all but it’ll do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/3 "2012-01-28T02:55:32Z")
Ummm… I’m not sure whether to believe that or not… as I can’t really refute that fact that you do lose heat. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/4 "2012-01-28T03:02:32Z")
I’ve made some progress. My theory I’ve developed, with pretty much nothing to back it up, is that it’s to relieve internal stress. When you void your bladder, you’ve removed a significant volume from your abdomen. Your bladder has shrunk, and is under stress with the tissues surrounding it. The piss shiver contractions aid the bladder in relieving that stress. This makes you less prone to causing small tears in the bladder or surrounding tissues, should you suddenly have to run away from that bear that was watching you urinate, hence its evolutionary advantage. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/5 "2012-01-28T03:03:05Z")
I blame Joan Collins. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/6 "2012-01-28T03:05:26Z")
Girl’s bladders get full too. 😉 But I’ve never heard a woman admit to piss shiver. Maybe its connected with something besides emptying the bladder? > [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > What progress has been made in determining the cause of this phenomenon? Only guys want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/7 "2012-01-28T03:27:00Z")
I am male and have never experienced this in my entire life. Am I the only one like that? Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/8 "2012-01-28T06:23:20Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Am I the only one like that? Yes, you’re a weirdie. It’s pretty self-explanatory: you take a respectable piss and your body shudders. It’s not really a chill, And it’s not a temperature change because you’ve merely eliminated some mass, you haven’t changed your body temperature. I’m more inclined to think it’s a spasm of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/9 "2012-01-28T06:33:45Z")
I’ve never experienced this, but I do get random shudders from time to time. I suspect it’s like the sleep shudder I get sometimes. Just a response from the body as tension is released, in your case, the relaxation after holding in a bladder full of urine. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/10 "2012-01-28T07:34:38Z")
Cold hands. ---
**Author:** ![Josh\_Winepuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4da419/32.png) [@Josh\_Winepuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Josh_Winepuck)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/11 "2012-01-28T07:39:37Z")
Now this is what I signed up to the Dope for. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this thread. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/12 "2012-01-28T07:44:22Z")
> [@Doubting\_Robert](#): > > Cold hands. Cold Hand Luke? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/13 "2012-01-28T07:56:18Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Piss is hot. If you take a huge piss you’ll lose a lot of heat in a short amount of time. You shiver. > > This wasn’t scientific at all but it’ll do the trick. It’s not a shiver like you’re cold, though, and I’ve never heard of it being accompanied by goose bumps. It’s more like a very brief ‘electric’ feeling up the spine, accompanied by a very short-term shudder that is incidentally quite satisfying. For me at least. It’s also intermittent - I maybe only experience it once a month. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/14 "2012-01-28T08:02:24Z")
All of my boys did it when they were babies. I don’t think it’s the heat loss, as their heat was just transferred to the diaper. I don’t know what it is, but if infants do it, it’s obviously something innate. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/15 "2012-01-28T08:09:08Z")
Do you guys ever feel your eyelids vibrate when you are dead tired and sleepy? Any connection? ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/16 "2012-01-28T08:36:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > It’s more like a very brief ‘electric’ feeling up the spine, accompanied by a very short-term shudder that is incidentally quite satisfying. For me at least. It ain’t quite an orgasm, but a good piss shiver is right up there in the same general league. I wish they were a little bit more predictable/controllable… ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/17 "2012-01-28T09:02:43Z")
As far as I can recall it’s never happened to me when the ambient temperature was warm and it’s never felt any different to me than a conventional shiver, so the cooling effect would appear to be the most prosaic explanation. Some might argue that since the urine leaving your body is roughly the same temperature as your body that there’s no net heat loss, but this isn’t quite correct. Not only are you exposing more of your skin to the ambient temperature but you are also reducing your effective heat capacity, rendering you more vulnerable to the effects of cold temperatures. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/18 "2012-01-28T09:06:56Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > It ain’t quite an orgasm, but a good piss shiver is right up there in the same general league. Yeah, definitely from the same stable of ‘pleasantly activated nerve endings’. I’d put it about the level of a good sneeze. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/19 "2012-01-28T09:07:27Z")
I never heard of or experienced this. Neat! Cool! Bodies are weird. Does it only happen when you pee standing up, or can it happen while you’re sitting too? I’m wondering if that might be why it’s not a girl thing. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943/20 "2012-01-28T09:10:10Z")
I was about to mock you because men don’t pee sitting down ETA and because women don’t get it. Then I thought, well actually we usually do when we’re taking a crap. And no, I’ve never experienced it sitting down. So maybe it is that. Next time you pee, try standing up to do it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-shiver/610943.md?page=2)