How long can you hold your wee in for? How much liquid does the human bladder hold?

Question

Today Mr. Gorgeous Fluffpot had to have an ultrascan to check for a kidney stone, and he had to drink two litres of water and hold it in for an hour without piddling. Now this was difficult and he was jumping up and down on one foot while he was waiting for the scan and was busting for a wee! He had the scan, and then rushed out of to the nearest loo when I heard him sigh with relief as what sounded like Niagara Falls gushed into the bowl...
I do have a question and am getting around to it! How much liquid can the human bladder actually hold, and how for long? And what is the longest that YOU have held in your widdle?
And how do you think I should reward Mr. Gorgeous Fluffpot for his very traumatic experience today?

Answer 1

My dear fluffpot.....the longest I have held it in is 13 hours when I queued to get to the front of a U2 gig then sat on my backside until they took the stage. By the time I got out of there I felt like I was going to combust. Having said that my bladder was a lot younger then....(1993 younger) nowadays I just hear a tap running and I'm off to the loo...PS I didn't drink anything all day - just ate Polo mints!

Answer 2

Ive had many an ultrasound and never heard of someone having to hold two liters of fluid. The bladder simply doesnt hold more than 8-10 oz depending on the person. Eventually the urine will back up into the kidneys and cause toxins to build up in the system.

You can hold your urine for a while, the uretha will become swollen and infected if you go long enough, which makes it hard to empty the bladder completely when you finally do relieve yourself, which results in bladder infections, and kidney damage.

Personally, as a teenager at many a music festival, the longest I have gone is 3 days. But I didnt drink or eat either. And i got one hell of a UTI after.

Answer 3

I remember on a school trip to the Science Museum in London when I was 14 I tried to use the toilet there but a friend was standing at the next urinal and I just couldn't wee. I didn't try again until I got home so I had gone from about 8.30 am until 5.00 pm without urinating although I had been drinking as normal.

I think this is the longest I've gone without emptying my bladder during the daytime. I was aware of the need to wee for most of the afternoon and the feeling got worse as time went on but I wasn't fidgeting or holding myself between the legs or anything like that and I never came close to wetting myself.

Answer 4

A 70 kgs man or woman bladder maximum capacity is 750 mls.
The urge for urinating, when there is no other concommitant problem eg prostatic enlargement oc cystitis, starts to be felt when the volume is around 500 mls.

So depending upon the rate of bladder filling the person can hold the urge for a varying amount of time. What happened to Mr G Fluffpot was you gave him to drink 2 litres andask him to hold the urine.

He must have felt the biggest reward when he emptied the Niagara falls .....

Answer 5

I think Mr Gorgeous should get Mrs Voluptuous Fluffpot out of her box, inflate her and give her a great big well done!

In answer to your question though...theoretically, you need never wee again if you exercise continuously you would sweat all the fluid out and your bladder would never fill enough to need emptying. This is why you can be certain that when the tennis players at Wimbledon leave the court for a comfort break...it is for big jobs and not little jobs.

Answer 6

the amount that a bladder can hold certainly varies depending on a person's size. However, 1 litre would be a sound estimate. Just becuase someone drinks two litres does not imply that two litres would then immediately go into his bladder. Much of the water is absorbed into the body is this relatively short time frame.The bladder fills at a rate of about 15 average sized droplets of urine per minute and will eventually burst if not emptied. There have been stories of drunk people holding in the copious quantitites of urine and suffering a burst bladder. There was a man in history, famous but I forget his name, who drank a lot of wine at a formal dinner. Too polite to be excused to relieve himself, his bladder burst and he died.

Answer 7

Well I have gone several hours without peeing, usually if I'm dehydrated, have not eaten or drank anything and most important of all, am not nervous. Nervousness seems to halve the time I can go without pissing.

As for the time I can hold it after the first urge to go to the loo? Not very long. 90 minutes at most, and by this time I am ready to give up my kingdom for a toilet.

I had many traumatic experiences in school due to moron teachers not letting me go.

Answer 8

The longest I managed to hold for was after I had had surgery. I went from 10 am the one day until 9.30 am the next day. I was really bursting - it was so uncomfortable (painful really) - the nurses had offered me a bedpan but I couldn't go lying down, so I had to wait until the next day when they helped me get out of bed. That was 23 1/2 hours!

Answer 9

i have seen people with problems clots/uti who could not go. after placing a cath. i have seen as much as 2200ml come out at once. i dont know how much you could hold by choice. as mentioned above, it does back up into the kidney and can cause real problems

Answer 10

I lasted 7 hours. I was meeting someone new, but was to shy to mention I needed the toilet, so held onto it, lol. never again, my stomach was bloated and I was on the toilet for what seemed forever!