Going to the bathroom even though you don’t have to: Is that unhealthy?

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An expert explains why it’s better not to urinate when you don’t feel the need.

Have you often found yourself scurrying to the bathroom “just in case”? Whether it’s before a meeting with friends, before going home from the office, or during your lunch break. Actually, you don’t “have” to, but going to the bathroom just presents itself.

A physical therapist who focuses primarily on the pelvic floor explained on TikTok why this is not a good idea. Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thoma, who has more than 650,000 followers, often shares tips and tricks for pelvic floor and bladder health in her videos. In one post, she explained that the bathroom trips we make “just in case” are anything but healthy.
Here’s why you shouldn’t go to the bathroom if you “don’t have to” at all.
Jeffrey-Thomas explains in her video that our bladder has “three stages of fullness.”

In stage one – the “awareness stage” – we know there is urine in the bladder.
In stage two, the bladder is much fuller and our body signals us that we need to urinate “soon.”
In stage three, the “panic button” is triggered, showing us that the bladder is almost about to “overflow” and we need a loo as soon as possible.

According to the expert, we usually go to the toilet in stage two – this means that we visit it even though we do not yet feel the need to urinate.

This “trains” the bladder to send the “panic feeling” signal from stage three to our brain and perceive the urge to empty the bladder much earlier than necessary.

That’s why it’s better to get out of the habit of urinating even though you “don’t have to”.

In these situations you should go to the toilet
The expert recommends that you should definitely go to the bathroom when you can (really) barely hold it in or you have a long car ride coming up.