Can Sitting Too Long Can Cause Bladder Problems for Women?
Can sitting too long cause bladder problems for women? It’s a question worth asking, since bladder control issues are common among women and often linked to factors like pregnancy or aging. However, prolonged sitting and physical inactivity can also play a significant role.
This blog from the Pelvic Awareness Project explores how sitting for long periods can affect bladder health, increase the risk of urinary incontinence, and what you can do to protect your pelvic floor and overall well-being.
The Link Between Prolonged Sitting and Bladder Problems
We often hear about women’s pelvic health issues caused by pregnancy, vaginal births, surgery, or menopause. But there’s also a connection between a sedentary lifestyle and bladder health, including bladder control and other urinary health issues.
Research has found that prolonged sitting, or a sedentary lifestyle, can lead to several issues with pelvic health and bladder health. Here’s what you need to know, and what you can do about it.
Understanding Bladder Control for Women
The bladder is a hollow organ located in your pelvis. It’s held in place by your pelvic floor, a series of muscles and ligaments that perform several key functions:
- holding organs in place
- enabling bladder and bowel function
- supporting sex, pregnancy, and birth
As your bladder fills with pee, it expands like a balloon. As it fills, it eventually tells your brain to go to the bathroom. After peeing, the bladder shrinks back down.1
Problems with the bladder can arise, and some are easier to detect than others. If you have blood in your urine, for instance, you should see a doctor immediately. Other issues, like a burning sensation while peeing, cloudy pee, or pain during sex, should also send you to the doctor.1
Urinary Incontinence in Women
One of the most common concerns for women, however, is loss of bladder control. Urinary incontinence, or leaking pee, is prevalent, with up to 62% of women aged 20 and older having some type of urinary incontinence.2
There are different types of incontinence including:2
- Stress urinary incontinence: Urine leaks during activities that increase bladder pressure, such as coughing or sneezing.
- Urge incontinence: An intense and sudden need to pee results in leaking before you can make it to the toilet.
- Overflow incontinence: Urine leaks because your bladder doesn’t empty each time you pee.
- Mixed incontinence: A combination of several conditions leads to bladder leakage problems.
If you have any type of incontinence problems, don’t suffer in silence. Use the Pelvic Awareness Project’s Physician Finder to find a doctor near you with expertise in women’s health.
A few possible causes of incontinence include the weakening of pelvic floor muscles, which is a major one. It turns out that a sedentary lifestyle and prolonged sitting can also contribute to bladder problems.
Why Women Experience Bladder Issues From Sitting Too Long
Research is finding a connection between a sedentary lifestyle and bladder health.
One study found that urge urinary incontinence was “significantly associated” with an increased average duration of sedentary behavior in older women.3 Those with urge incontinence sat for up to 19 per cent longer than others, defined as significantly more extended periods of sitting, compared to women with no incontinence.4
Researchers concluded that there is a clear link between sitting and having urinary incontinence.4 They also concluded that decreasing the time spent in prolonged sitting may be a treatment to help reduce incontinence.3
Another study reported that prolonged sitting time was associated with urge incontinence symptoms across all populations and with stress urinary incontinence in females. Prolonged sitting was defined as more than seven hours spent sitting or reclining in a typical day.5
Sit Less and Move More
Since there’s a connection between a sedentary lifestyle and bladder health, the path to better pelvic health seems clear. Tips to prevent bladder problems from sitting include moving more and reducing the time you spend sitting.4
Even if you notice more incidents of urge incontinence as you age, it will still help to reduce sedentary time. Sitting for a long time can only make it worse. One guideline to remember is: “sit less - move more,” and break up any period of sitting. Some researchers suggest that 18 minutes is the key time to get up and move. 4
Staying active is good for overall health, too. Excessive sitting time has been associated with several conditions, such as low back pain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression, and can even elevate your risk of cancer-specific mortality.5
Taking Care of Pelvic Floor Health
Extended sitting and poor posture can also contribute to incontinence by weakening the pelvic floor muscles. That’s because the increased abdominal pressure puts strain on the bladder, which also decreases the ability of your pelvic floor muscles to hold against that pressure.6
Your pelvic floor muscles help control urination by opening and closing the urethra, which carries urine from the bladder out of the body. Pelvic floor muscles also hold the bladder up during walking, standing, and lifting.7
Since tightening your pelvic floor muscles will stop the flow of pee, it makes sense that weakened muscles can lead to incontinence. A key to maintaining pelvic floor health is to strengthen these muscles through regular Kegel exercises.8
Pelvic Floor Muscles Exercises for Women
To perform pelvic floor muscle exercises for women, known as Kegels, squeeze the muscles that control the flow of urine or prevent gas from being passed. Hold for three seconds, then relax for a count of three. Perform 10 repetitions, three times a day, in a lying, sitting, and standing position. You can ask your doctor for guidance to be sure you’re doing them properly.8
Besides sitting for too long, other factors can weaken pelvic floor muscles, including the natural aging process. Maintaining a strong pelvic floor is beneficial for women of all ages. Want to know more about the importance of the pelvic floor? Check out this blog on why the pelvic floor matters for women’s health. And remember to sit less and move more.
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1- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/25010-bladder
2- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17596-urinary-incontinence
3- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32017767
4- https://www.gcu.ac.uk/aboutgcu/universitynews/2020-incontinencelinkedtosittingtoolong
5- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10950664/
6- https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/3-surprising-risks-of-poor-posture
7- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/urinary-incontinence/in-depth/bladder-control-problem/art-20046597
8- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/14611-kegel-exercises
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