Urinary Retention

Urinary retention is when:

• You can't urinate (pee) at all or only a little

• You can urinate but there's still urine in your bladder after you're done

The Ureters, Bladder, and Uret...

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With urinary retention:

• You may also leak urine and urinate without meaning to (urinary incontinence)

• Doctors will do an ultrasound after you pee to see how much urine is left in your bladder

• Doctors may use a catheter (thin flexible tube) to empty your bladder

Causes include:

• Problems with your bladder muscles

• Something blocking your bladder’s opening, such as a kidney stone or enlarged prostate gland

• Severe constipation (fecal impaction)

• Nerve problems to your bladder (these can happen in people with health problems such as diabetes or Parkinson disease)

• Certain medicines

Urinary retention is more common in men because growth of the prostate can block the flow of urine.

If you can't empty your bladder completely:

• Trouble starting urination

• A weak urine stream

• A sense that your bladder hasn't emptied completely

• Sometimes leaking of urine, urinating at night, or needing to urinate often

• Urinary tract infection

If you can't urinate at all:

• No ability to start urination

• Pain as your bladder stretches

• Swelling in your lower belly

If you can't pass any urine at all, doctors will know you have urinary retention. If you're able to pass some urine, doctors will do a test to see how much urine stays in your bladder.

• Doctors will have you urinate as much as you can

• They’ll either do an ultrasound of your bladder or insert a catheter into your bladder to see if there is any urine left in your bladder

• If the amount of urine left is more than about half a cup, doctors will know you have urinary retention

Doctors will also do tests:

• Usually a rectal exam—a doctor feels inside your anus with a finger to see if it’s blocked by stool or, if you're a man, to see if you have an enlarged prostate

• Urine test

• Blood tests

• Ultrasound

If you can’t urinate at all, doctors will insert a catheter into your bladder right away to drain the urine. To treat the cause of your urinary retention, doctors may:

• Have you stop any medicines that may be causing the problem

• If you’re a man with an enlarged prostate, treat it with surgery or medicines

• Prescribe medicine to relax the muscles at the opening of your bladder

• If you have nerve problems, have you put a catheter in your bladder several times a day to drain urine

• Sometimes, do surgery to pass urine out of your body in a different way