First let’s review common symptoms

• Frequency: going to urinate very often
• Urgency: suddenly feeling the need to urinate right away
• Leaks: loss of bladder control, leading to urine leaks 

Bladder training consists of changing your habits to gain better control of your bladder. A main goal is to increase the amount of time between trips to the toilet as well as number of leaks per day.

Bladder diaries

The first step is to start keeping a voiding diary, aka “bladder diary”. This diary will help you see where you start, how you progress, and helps you notice any important patterns.

• The diary should include the following:
  Time you urinate
• The amount you pee (small, medium or large)
• If you had any leaks (Mild, moderate, or severe) and what you were doing when the leakage happened
• The amounts and types of fluids you drink
• Any other symptoms you have

How to stop the frequent bathroom runs?

Once you get an idea of how often you are urinating, you are ready to start gradual bladder training that will help space out your bathroom trips:

• First, increase the amount of time between bathroom visits. 
  Ex: If you normally go every hour, add 15minutes, meaning you transition to going every 1hr and 15min
• Follow your new schedule for several days. If no problem, on day 3 or 4, increase the time again by 15 minutes
• Keep doing these steps until you make it to 2 or 3 hours between bathroom visits. Building up to longer intervals can take some time, so patience and persistence is important
• Remember to keep updating your bladder diary so you can see your improvement 

What about when I feel like I am about to pee in my pants?

Part of the bladder training process is learning how to control the urge to urinate and teach your bladder to wait. Some helpful tips for when you get that urge sensation:

• Squeeze your pelvic floor (aka Kegel): Squeeze and relax your pelvic floor several times. This is a good form of distraction that engages the brain and overrides the urgency signal your brain keeps sending
• Deep Breaths: Doing deep in and out breaths is another method to calm your nervous system and decrease urgency signals being sent to your bladder
• Distract your mind: Focus on other thoughts while the urge passes
• Remember, try the techniques above to stop the urge and do not rush to the bathroom till the urge passes!

Don’t forget these important facts!

• Growing up we are told to always go the bathroom before we leave the house, before the long drive, when we come home, etc., but that is false. It is important to only go to the bathroom when you have the need to go. Otherwise, you are training your bladder to think it is full, when in reality it is not!
• Drink fluids through out the day. Somen people heavily decrease their fluid intake which can lead to dehydration. Keep drinking as recommended by your physician (usually 8 cups/day).
• Limit or avoid alcohol and caffeine—these two liquids can irritate the bladder and lead to bladder symptoms like urge or frequency. 

If you do not see any improvement, remember to talk to your doctor and advocate for getting the help you need to improve your bladder health!