Bladder
A pelvic floor physiotherapist helps you understand how your bladder and pelvic floor work together and provide exercises and strategies to improve bladder control, reduce discomfort, and restore normal function.
Common Bladder Symptoms
Awareness or Pain
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Increased awareness or pressure in your bladder or abdominals
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Awareness of your urethra after peeing
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Pain in your abdominals before, during or after peeing
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Burning, itching pain in your urethra when peeing
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​Bladder cystitis
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Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
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Feeling like a urinary tract infection (UTI) but the tests were clear
Emptying
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​Feeling of a full bladder after peeing/bladder retention
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A slow urine stream
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A split or spray urine stream
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A hesitant urine stream
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A stop/start urine stream flow
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Unable to completely empty bladder and return 10 minutes later​
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Needing to strain to empty your bladder
Frequency or Urgency
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A sudden desperate desire to pee that you cannot defer
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Rushing to the toilet often producing a small volume of urine
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Needing to pee often (every 1-2 hours)
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Avoiding drinking too much for fear of peeing too much
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Needing to go back to the bathroom to empty the bladder even when you have just emptied it
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Overctive bladder syndrome
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Emptying your bladder 'just in case'
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Toilet mapping to avoid urine incontinence
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Getting up in the night to pee more than once (nocturia)
Leakage
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Small urine leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing or running
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Large urine leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing or running
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Urine incontinence in the evenings when lifting something heavy
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Post pee dribble/ post micturition dribble
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Leakage with urgency, rushing to the toilet
Did you know you can have an overactive bladder?
The prevalence of overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) in men and women worldwide has increased from 18% to 20%
(Zhang et al., 2025).
OAB symptoms include frequency, nocturia, and urgency with no presence of a urinary tract infection (UTI)