On the Bodily Consequences of Restraint: Holding In and Letting Go
A medical explainer examines the health effects of holding in urine and flatulence, moving from the serious (urinary tract infections, kidney stones, bladder dysfunction) to the comic (the social mortification of an ill-timed noise). The piece concludes that occasional restraint is harmless, but chronic suppression invites mild to moderate bodily trouble.
On many occasions, we've been found guilty of holding our pee, only to run, like a village idiot, to the bathroom when an opportunity presents itself. What's more, on at least more than one occasion, in an attempt to produce a “silencer,” instead, we produced an atomic bomb -- a noisy and explosive fart. Given these hilarious and embarrassing feats which are sometimes associated with urinating and passing out gas, respectively, is it healthy to hold in urine or fart?
HOLDING IN URINE
Your kidneys filter excess water and wastes from your blood regularly, and excrete them as urine. Before excretion, urine is temporarily stored in your bladder -- you often feel like urinating when your bladder is full. However, because of circumstances, you might hold your pee for long periods of time even though you feel like visiting the bathroom. But, is holding your pee dangerous?
Holding your pee for a short time, even when you feel the urge "to go," is not harmful. Nevertheless, holding in urine for a long period of time (and frequently) could be harmful. For starters, holding your pee is associated with a small increase in the risk of getting urinary tract infections. Like stagnant water, urine standing in the bladder provides a fertile ground for germs to grow and multiply.
In addition, holding in urine can stretch certain muscles such as the external sphincter muscle. This muscle prevents urine from leaking out of the bladder. If stretched and weakened, you might unconsciously leak urine especially when you cough or sneeze. Also, urine buildup in the bladder can stretch the bladder and increase bladder size. This can make it difficult or impossible for the bladder to contract and release pee normally -- another recipe for urinary tract infection.
Finally, holding your pee can increase your risk of developing kidney stones, especially in people whose urine is mineral-rich.
Question:
Will your bladder burst if you hold in urine for too long?
Answer:
This is highly unlikely, but it is a possibility especially if you are involved in a traumatic event, such as a road traffic accident, with a full bladder. That said, in the absence trauma, you are more likely to leak urine or wet yourself than suffer from bladder rupture.
HOLDING IN FART
Fart or flatus is produced by bacteria fermentation. That is, bacteria act on food in the gut, producing gas as a by-product. Also, the body produces flatus during food digestion.
Passing out gas, especially gas that announces its arrival and stinks like rotten cabbage, can be a source of embarrassment -- think about being stuck in an elevator with strangers or sharing a blanket with a new lover.
But, is holding in fart dangerous? Well, most of the time, holding in fart is inconsequential. Notwithstanding, holding fart for long may increase the pressure in the lower intestinal system. This could result in pain and discomfort. It can also cause bloating, encouraging your stomach to rumble like a wild zoo animal. What's more, though very rare, if you have intestinal obstruction and weak gut walls, the pressure from fart buildup can cause your intestines to balloon and blow up.
Even trickier, if left unreleased, some gases can be absorbed into the circulation and exhaled in your breath or burped out -- ever heard of fart breath?
So, ladies and gentlemen, release fart whenever you feel like, even when using public transport 😉. Just pray that it doesn't blow a trumpet to announce its arrival, or come out with some food particles.
IN A NUTSHELL
Holding in fart or holding in urine is sometimes necessary, however, if you find yourself dancing to Nyangono Du Sud's "Foup Fap" without any background music, it’s time to make a pit stop.
- Dr .Judex Ndifor
The post speaks to a universal human experience—the social embarrassment of bodily functions in public or intimate settings—while grounding itself in actual physiology. It captures a moment when health-adjacent content was finding voice online in accessible, vernacular registers, mixing clinical detail with humor to make medical information feel less forbidding.
Then, it offered permission and clarity in a space where shame often silences practical questions. Now, it reads as a small artifact of how serious knowledge can coexist with irreverence and laughter—a tonal move that remains rare in institutional health communication and feels, in retrospect, quietly important to the work of demystification.