Bladder
These can be a range of symptoms affecting how the bladder stores and empties urine, including urinary urgency, frequency, leakage, difficulty emptying, and bladder or pelvic pain.

Many people experience bladder symptoms such as needing to urinate often, rushing to the toilet, waking at night to wee, or discomfort with a full bladder — even when urine tests show no infection.

Pelvic floor physiotherapy is an effective, evidence-based treatment for bladder dysfunction. A pelvic floor physio assesses how the pelvic floor muscles, bladder habits, breathing, posture, and nervous system are working together.

Treatment may include pelvic floor muscle retraining, bladder retraining, pain and nervous system regulation, education, and lifestyle strategies to reduce urgency, improve bladder control, ease pelvic pain, and restore confidence with bladder function.

Common Bladder Symptoms

Awareness or Pain

Increased awareness or pressure in your bladder or abdominals
Awareness of your urethra after peeing
Pain in your abdominals before, during or after peeing
Burning, itching pain in your urethra when peeing
Bladder cystitis
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Feeling like a urinary tract infection (UTI) but the tests were clear

Emptying

Feeling of a full bladder after peeing/bladder retention
A slow urine stream
A split or spray urine stream
A hesitant urine stream
A stop/start urine stream flow
Unable to completely empty bladder and return 10 minutes later
Needing to strain to empty your bladder

Frequency or Urgency

A sudden desperate desire to pee that you cannot defer
Rushing to the toilet often producing a small volume of urine
Needing to pee often (every 1-2 hours)
Avoiding drinking too much for fear of peeing too much
Needing to go back to the bathroom to empty the bladder even when you have just emptied it
Overctive bladder syndrome
Emptying your bladder 'just in case'
Toilet mapping to avoid urine incontinence
Getting up in the night to pee more than once (nocturia)

Leakage

Small urine leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing or running
Large urine leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing or running
Urine incontinence in the evenings when lifting something heavy
Post pee dribble/ post micturition dribble
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).