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Urine retention means you have difficulties emptying your bladder, there can be many causes.
The general causes are:
- Flow Obstructions
- Weak Bladder
Flow Obstructions
This means that there is some sort of resistance in the urethra (the tube leading from your bladder to the outside of your body). Flow obstructions can be caused by damage to the urethra or a ‘urethral stricture’ (build up of scar tissue), meaning that the urethra has become too narrow.
This problem can be caused by and enlarged prostate in men, or difficulties relaxing the urethra’s sphincter muscle which means you subconsciously contract this muscle even though you want to let urine pass through; this in turn means that you can’t urinate.
Some neurological disorders can mean that your brain and your bladder can’t ‘talk’ to each other. Normally your brain tells your bladder muscle to contract and your sphincter muscle to relax so that you can empty your bladder. Instead, they sometimes both contract at the same time instead, so you can’t empty your bladder.
Weak Bladder
The bladder muscle does not always have enough strength to completely empty the bladder. This can be due to damage to the nerves that control the bladder muscle.
A long term effect of problems emptying the bladder is that the bladder muscle thickens; this leads to the bladder not having enough strength to contract properly. A bladder weakened in this way can be the result of problems passing urine after narcosis (drug-related unconsciousness) or after certain types of anaesthetic.
Symptoms of Retention
The most common symptoms of urine retention are a weak flow of urine and that the bladder still contains some urine after you have been to the toilet normally. You may also experience the discomfort of urine leakage or frequently needing the loo.
If a problem with emptying your bladder happens suddenly, happens all the time or you experience pain, consult your GP straight away. If you don’t you may get an infection or your urine may be pressed back up to your kidneys which can leads to very harmful kidney damage. Your GP will be able to help you restore your comfort and confidence.
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