Why you SHOULDN’T pee before leaving: Doctor claims going to bathroom without needing to is damaging

A doctor has revealed why you shouldn’t pee before you leave the house ‘just in case’ – claiming that going to the bathroom without actually needing to can cause damage to your bladder and lead to incontinence over time.

Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a pelvic floor physical therapist from Boston, Massachusetts, has warned people not to attempt to use the bathroom if they don’t feel like they really have to go.

She replied to someone on TikTok who claimed people should always try to make themselves pee before they go out somewhere, and she explained that doing so can actually harm you in the end.

The doctor shared her expertise in a video which has now gone viral – gaining more than five million views in a matter of days, and leaving many people on the internet stunned.

Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a pelvic floor physical therapist from Boston, Massachusetts, has warned people not to attempt to use the bathroom if they don’t feel like they really have to go

‘Pelvic floor physical therapist here, and I work with a lot of people with overactive bladders, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, the whole nine yards,’ she began in the clip. ‘And here’s why you shouldn’t go “just in case.”‘

The doctor shared her expertise in a video which has now gone viral – gaining more than five million views in a matter of days, and leaving many people on the internet stunned

Alicia explained that there are three levels of feeling like you have to pee. 

‘The first one is just an awareness level that tells you that there’s some urine in the bladder,’ she said.

‘The second one is the one that tells you to make a plan to use the toilet, and the third is kind of the panic button that says, “Get me there right now, I’m about to overflow.”‘

According to the physical therapist, if you force yourself to go ‘just in case,’ it can cause long-term damage to your body and make it harder to hold in your pee. 

‘If we’re going “just in case” it means we’re going when [our bladder is in the middle section], so before we actually get an urge to use the toilet,’ she continued.

‘If we’re doing this all the time … then our bladder starts getting these data points and says, “OK, maybe we should be sending the signal a little sooner, so let’s shift this line down.” 

Alicia explained that there are three levels of feeling like you have to pee. The first one tells you there’s some urine in the bladder, the second tells you to go to the toilet, and the third is when you reach a level of panic

According to the physical therapist, if you force yourself to go ‘just in case,’ it tells your bladder that it should be ‘sending the signal’ that you have to pee ‘sooner,’ which will result in you ‘getting that urge to go’ more often

‘Now, we’re going to start getting that urge to go a lot sooner than before. Over time, this compresses those three levels together, so the difference between feeling like there’s some urine in your bladder and feeling that panic button like you’re about to pee your pants is going to happen in a much shorter amount of time.’Avoid the “just in case” unless you’re going to be in the car for longer than an hour, once before bed, or before or after sex.’

Many viewers were surprised by Alicia’s advice and took to the comment section to share their thoughts.

‘TikTok is basically just a bunch of videos telling me I’m doing life wrong,’ joked one person. ‘Like Jesus, really? I’m peeing wrong?’

‘As a new mom who has been through therapy and still pees whenever I cough really hard, thank you. Instant follow,’ added another.

‘Who else hears their mom in their head say, “Go just in case,” when you’re out and about near a bathroom?’ read a third comment. 

Others backed up Alicia’s claims. One viewer said, ‘Been experiencing this at work lately and you’re right.’

‘This happened to me, for two years I had false urgency feeling most of the time,’ shared someone else. ‘Had to take medications for three months and now I’m more like normal.’

‘I work for a pelvic floor physical therapist and this is facts,’ agreed another person.

According to Healthing.ca, going pee ‘just in case’ is indeed bad for your bladder.

‘People sensitize their bladders to go at lower volumes than needed,’ Steven A. Kaplan, MD, director of Benign Urologic Diseases and The Men’s Health Program at the Mount Sinai Health System, told them. ‘It’s hard to get out of that because they’re so used to that.’

‘The difference between feeling like there’s some urine in your bladder and feeling like you’re about to pee your pants is going to happen in a much shorter amount of time,’ she explained

Many viewers were surprised by Alicia’s advice and took to the comment section to share their thoughts

‘If you keep going ‘just in case’ too often, the bladder never fills up properly, then it shrinks a bit,’ gynecologist Elizabeth Farrell told ABC.

‘So then you do tend to have the feeling that you’re going to have to go more frequently.’ 

Alicia often shares advice on how to improve your pelvic floor muscles to her TikTok account, where she has racked up more than 651,000 followers.

‘We’re the sum of our habits over time,’ she told the Washington Post last November, while discussing why she decided to start sharing her healthy urination habits online.

‘Having good habits and establishing them early on can be protective in a lot of ways.’ 

Others backed up Alicia’s claims. One viewer said, ‘Been experiencing this at work lately and you’re right’

Alicia often shares advice on how to improve your pelvic floor muscles to her TikTok account, where she has racked up more than 651,000 followers

She also advised against ‘forcing every last drop’ of urine out of your body as quickly as possible when peeing and ‘chugging massive amounts of fluid all at once’

While chatting with the outlet, she advised against ‘forcing every last drop’ of urine out of your body as quickly as possible when peeing.

‘That’s not actually allowing that normal reflex of your pelvic floor relaxing and your bladder contracting to empty,’ she added.

‘You’re kind of just creating a lot of intra-abdominal pressure to make things happen.’

Additionally, Alicia said people should avoid ‘chugging massive amounts of fluid all at once.’