It may be considered a taboo or embarrassing habit, but more people urinate in the shower than you might actually think.
A survey from 2020 asked 1,010 Brits and Americans about their shower habits, with 68 percent of men and 56 percent of women admitting to urinating in the shower.
However, the results gathered by bathroom specialists QS Supplies, revealed that most people were not prepared to admit this openly to others.
But are there any health risks associated with this fairly common habit?
Doctor Mikhail Varshavski, better known online as Dr Mike, took to YouTube to share his opinion on urinating in the shower.
Speaking to his 11.8 million subscribers he said: “Is it a big deal if I pee in the shower? It all goes to the same place down the drain anyway, doesn’t it?
“There are some positives and pros to peeing in the shower.
“It saves time, it saves water. But health risks, there are some unique situations here.”
Firstly he warned that urine could carry bacteria.
Dr Mike said: “Urine is not fully free of bacteria. A lot of people think it’s fully sterile.
“It’s not really sterile. Remember, it also has to travel through your urinary tract, which could pick up some pathogens across the way.
“When it exits your body, it could pick up some pathogens.
“So there are some potential sources of bacteria. That being said, there’s bacteria all around us, inside of us. That’s not the end of the world.
“But if you have a urinary tract infection, and you pee, and you step in it, and you have a cut, could you get an infection? Yes. Pretty low risk.”
The other issue is getting used to the habit.
“There are also instances of issues of almost conditioning yourself to pee every time you hear running water, like when you’re in the shower,” he said.
“So the next time you hear that, you’re gonna wanna pee and it’s gonna be uncomfortable.
“There’s also instances of people saying, ‘Oh, I should just pee just in case,’ especially in females where they say, ‘I want to pee just in case before I leave’ and, ‘Maybe we should pee in between classes so that I never have to go to the bathroom.’
“If you do that too often, you can get into the situation where you train your bladder to send signals for you to want to pee very early.
“You could also cause some pelvic floor dysfunction.”
But ultimately he concluded that the risk is “pretty low”.
“If you’re doing it every now and then and you don’t make it a routine thing, I think the risk is pretty low,” Dr Mike added. “Pee away.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
