Should You Hover When You Pee? - Episode 20

In this episode of the Marrón Pelvic Health podcast, Dr. Kari Roberts delves into the common practice of hovering while peeing and why it's actually detrimental to your pelvic health. She debunks myths surrounding the need to hover and explains how hovering can lead to issues such as incomplete bladder emptying and urinary tract infections. Dr. Roberts emphasizes the importance of sitting on the toilet to allow the pelvic floor to fully relax, ensuring proper bladder function. By breaking the hovering habit and adopting healthier bladder habits, individuals can prevent long-term pelvic floor issues and improve their overall well-being.

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• Episode Transcript

  Dr. Kari: Welcome to the Marone Pelvic Health podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Doctor Kerry Roberts. On this show, we will be discussing a variety of things regarding your pelvic health. These conversations will be a mix of education, personal experiences, and a blend of tips you can apply to have a healthier pelvis. The goal of this show is to normalize conversations around pelvic health and help women stop suffering in silence. Should you hover when you pee? Million dollar question. I get asked this all the time, and today I wanted to talk to you all about bladder habits on the toilet. I get asked this all the time. Should I hover? Is it bad if I hover? Why can't I hover? Why do you say I shouldn't hover? Why did my mom tell me to hover? All of these questions and conversations around hovering. Is it good? Is it not good? Is it indifferent? Well, too long. Didn't read. The short answer is, you should not hover. You should not hover. I don't care if your mom told you to hover. My mom also told me to cover. And when I learned it was wrong, I had to talk to her about it, too. You should not hover. It's not good to hover. It's not healthy to hover. It's not ideal, and it doesn't really protect you from anything. So let's dig into this a little bit and see. Why do people even hover in the first place? I think about when you're a little girl and you're out in a store with your mom or a museum or whatever, out in public, and you've got to go to the bathroom, and your mom tells you, don't sit on the seat, hover. Which, if your mom is like mine, she probably said that. And why are they saying that? Why are they teaching you not to sit on the seat? More than likely, they're doing it because they're trying to protect you. They're trying to help you be as safe as possible, to be as healthy as possible, because nobody wants to come in contact with anybody's germs. Nobody wants anybody's germs near them, period. Especially not in your private part, near your ***** and your, your bottom and your **** and all of those things. So that's usually why people hover. Then if you get a little bit older, maybe you've been away to college, maybe you spend a lot of time just out and about at the workplace, out with your friends for dinner, drinks, things like that. You go to the bathroom and it's like, pee on the seat, and it's so gross. It pee on the seat is so nasty. Nobody wants to sit on anybody's pee, especially if it's pee that did not come from your body. Right. So that's another reason. That's probably the two main reasons you don't want to sit on the seat and because your mom told you. And then the third reason that I've come across is people that are just overall very conscious, right. They're conscious of their health. They're conscious of their surroundings, and they just don't think that it's a good idea to sit with your bare bottom someplace where someone else sat with their bare bottom. So those are the three main reasons. Because your mom taught you to, because you don't want to sit on anybody else's pee, or because you just don't want to come in contact with anybody else, you know, anywhere anybody else was in contact. So let's kind of go through why. That's not why. I don't agree with that. There are lots of, um, reflexes that go into what happens when you have to empty your bladder. There are multiple reflexes that happen when you have to pee or empty your bladder void, however you want to say it. And let's keep it really high level and simple. You've got pelvic floor muscles that tighten around the urethra to give you your. To give you your continence, right. To give you your bladder control. And then your bladder is also a muscle, and while it's filling, ideally it should be relaxed, right. So when it's time to go to the bathroom, your bladder will contract, and then your pelvic floor will relax. Right. And then after you pee, your pelvic floor contracts again, so you don't have any dribbles. And then your bladder relaxes. And your bladder should be relaxed for several hours until it's full again. Tells you, hey, I got to go to the bathroom. You sit on the toilet. Pelvic floor relaxes. Bladder squeezes. When it's done, better. Relaxes. Pelvic floor squeezes. That's usually how it goes. So when it's time to empty your bladder and you are sitting on the seat, your pelvic floor is in a very relaxed position, which means it's very easy for the pelvic floor to relax so that the bladder can contract and it doesn't have to work up again. Work against anything. When you are hovering, your pelvic floor is attached to those muscles and. Excuse me, not the muscles to the bones on the interior part of your pelvis. So when you are hovering, your pelvic floor is not fully relaxed. It is doing a mild to moderate contraction because you're holding the squat for who knows how long. Your pelvic floor is working. So it's not fully relaxed. What could happen is the bladder has to now push against that contraction of the pelvic floor. Now the bladder has to squeeze harder to get the contents out. And then the pelvic floor doesn't ever relax because it's got to stay. Give some stability while you are hovering. That bad habit can of that pelvic floor not fully relaxing. Urine can get trapped in the urethra. It can predispose you to urinary tract infections. You might develop a habit where your bladder never fully relaxes, and you could develop other habits just from reinforcing that behavior. So that is why I recommend all of my patients to sit and not hover. Now, let's talk about these reasons why. Because your mom said so. Because your mom said so. Because you were taught to do this. And then that number, third one, because you are conscious and you don't want to come in contact with people's will come in contact with other people, germs and whatnot. You don't want to set your bare bottom or someone else set their bare bottom. I can't quote the study because I haven't read it per se, but I have heard other people, you know, make reference to studies like this and what have you, and it makes perfect sense. Our hands are exposed to so much, we touch so many things. Our hands are just exposed to so much in our way of life that you're not going to be in contact with that much stuff with the back of the skin of your thigh. Your skin of your thigh more than likely is covered, especially in the winter and fall months. And then if you're wearing something a little bit shorter in the summer, it's still not fully exposed. Usually, your buttock area is not fully exposed. So with it not being that exposed, there's a decreased risk of there being bacteria or things on there. That's number one. Number two, when they swab. The study of doorknobs versus toilet seats and money. Doorknobs and money have way more germs on them than toilet seats do. And you've already come in contact with the doorknob when you open the door to go into the bathroom or said store or what have you. Light switch, whatever. So your body is already in contact with way more germs with your hands than it would ever be in contact with the toilet seat. That's number two. So that kind of is a mythbuster for those two. Now, peeing. Pee on the seat, which is so gross. Nobody wants to sit with pee on the seat. But peeing on the seat, though, it's nasty. Pee does not. You can wipe the pee, and once the pee is dried, whatever is there that can contaminate you is. Is dead. So you can wipe the seat. You can line it with toilet tissue, which is what I used to do, especially growing up. That was what our mom taught us to do. You can line up. You can even use toilet seat liners. Wipe the seat dry, then put a toilet seat liner, and then that really protects you so that there should be no real reason. If you have a liner there, you are protecting you against yourself, against a surface that doesn't really have that many germs. And if there are germs, they're already dead. And then you can sit. Now, there are workarounds that I just mentioned. If you're like, I don't want to sit, then you can line it with toilet tissue, or you can use a liner or. Sorry, you can use a. Yeah, the liners, you can purchase them on Amazon. I purchased them, and I give them to some clients here. Like, here, my friend, keep this in your purse. A lot of times we will have sanitary products, maybe feminine wipes, a little lotion, a little lip gloss, perfume, you know, whatever we keep in our purse. You can just keep a very small, discreet package of toilet seat covers in your purse or on your person when you're out traveling. And then now you're good to go, and now you're out living life. You're outside, right? But you are not exposing yourself to any germs. And then you're. You don't have any habits. That's perpetuating unhealthy habits for your public floor. So, in a nutshell, I would love for you to stop squatting when you pee, stop hovering, just sit on the seat. And now when I was talking about the things that could go wrong, like your bladder doesn't fully empty or you have to really power through to empty your bladder, or it feels like bladder, bladder urine gets stuck in the urethra and you get little dribbles or you've got a little bit of drops that come out. That's the issue, my friend. And I do not want you to deal with that. So if you have that or if what I'm explaining things should usually go doesn't seem like it's going with you. Don't hesitate. Reach out to a pelvic floor therapist if you want to reach out to me, I can work with you directly. If you're in the Atlanta area, you can contact me and we can get something set up in person. I would love to have the opportunity to help you have a safer pelvic floor. A pelvic floor that functions better because I know firsthand when things are not going well with our bladder, it can infiltrate other areas of our life, and nobody wants to be a slave to their pelvic floor or to their bladder because they feel like they're going to the bathroom or dribbling all the time. So if what is normal isn't quite your normal, then seek out attention and otherwise stop hovering when you sit. Sorry, stop hovering when you pee and start sitting on the seat until next time and I'll be back in your ears with another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Morone Pelvic Health podcast. Please do me a favor and leave a review so that more people can find this content and make sure you like and subscribe yourself so you never miss another episode.