Whether they admit it or not, most people have peed in the shower at least once in their life.
However, doctors have revealed that this lazy habit is actually very bad for your bladder.
Urogynaecologist Dr. Teresa Irwin has taken to TikTok to outline the best (and worst) ways to go to the toilet. She explained that while emptying the bladder in a standing position is good in some ways, it also trains us to release urine every time we hear running water - something which could definitely land you in a sticky situation if you aren't careful.
"You don't want to do it all the time because what happens is every time you hear the sound of water your bladder is going to want to pee - because it's used to hearing the sound of the water in the shower," Dr. Irwin explained.
"So whenever you're washing your hands, washing the dishes, your bladder is going to be salivating so to speak because it wants to go and pee," she added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Iriwn isn't the only doctor who's warned against going to the toilet in the shower. Boston-based pelvic floor therapist Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas - who goes by the handle @thepelvicdancefloor on TikTok - also used the social media platform to spread awareness about why you should avoid peeing under a direct stream of water.
"If you pee while the water is running then you're creating an association in your brain between the sound of running water and having to pee," she told her followers in a TikTok video.
The doctor went on to explain how, if you don't have a strong pelvic floor, this "could potentially lead to some leak issues when you hear running water outside of the shower."
She added that for people born with female anatomy, peeing and standing up are not a good combination to begin with. "Your pelvic floor isn't going to relax properly, which means we're really not going to be emptying our bladder super well," she said.
"So try to pee before you ever turn on the shower water and if you get the urge to pee while you're in there try to ignore it," the doctor recommended.
