Doctor issues major warning to anybody who does this controversial shower habit
Chelsea Connor
Featured Image Credit: Peter Dazely/Peter Cade/Getty Images
A doctor has gone viral on TikTok after issuing a warning to anybody who 'does this controversial act in the shower.'
Now, whatever happens in the shower stays in the shower right?
But there are a few things that we know aren't proper etiquette but we still do it sometimes.
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And this is true even of celebs as well - with Kelly Clarkson and Jessica Biel both detailing their interesting shower habits.
However, Dr Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas has advised her followers against a common but controversial shower habit.
The doctor and pelvic floor expert posted a video warning about the effects urinating in the shower can have to your usual toilet routine and strongly urges against it.
Jeffrey-Thomas told her followers in a TikTok video: "We want to avoid training our bladder to associate certain signals with the urge to pee. In this case, peeing in the shower associates the sound of running water with urination or with submersion in water.
"This can often transition into being triggered by other sounds of running water (like when you're running the faucet to wash your hands or the dishes) or when you're in bodies of water.
"Normal time between trips to the bathroom is every three to four hours during the day but a minimum of two and ideally, you should not be getting up at night."
She continued to say: "We know that as your bladder steadily fills up, the intensity of the feeling of needing to go will increase more and more and more until we get to this peak but that wave will come back down and it will settle back down.
"The goal is to be able to use these techniques to kind of ride the wave so that we are not giving in at that high level of intensity to go.
"If you’re constantly giving in and going at the top of that wave, it’s training your body to send that really urgent signal more often, you’re perpetuating the cycle."
But not only that but, according to the doctor, women's pelvic anatomy isn't built to pee standing up, as she says that it is not 'conducive to pelvic floor relaxations'.
Speaking to Buzzfeed, she said that whereas cisgender men have the 'prostate to support the bladder', cisgender women and those who've had gender-affirming surgeries 'don't have the same level of support'.
In a video detailing what else can affect your pelvic floor, she also shared that 'pushing out' urine and 'hovering over the toilet' can also affect your pelvic floor.
So not only is it gross but could affect your muscles too - so it's probably worth remembering that for next time you take a shower.