What does the bladder control system look like?
Most of your bladder control system lies inside your pelvis. Stand with your hands on your hips. The bones under your hands are the pelvic bones. Your pelvis is shaped like a big bowl.The bottom of this "bowl" is the area between your legs. The muscles across this area are the pelvic floor muscles.
Your bladder is another muscle. It is a balloon-shaped organ inside your pelvis, just below your belly button.
Your pelvic floor muscles should be strong and tight to hold up your bladder in its proper place.
Your bladder should stay relaxed when it is full of urine. But, when you go to the bathroom, the bladder muscle should tighten. This squeezes urine out of the bladder.
The sphincter (SFINK-tur) muscles are two muscles that surround the tube that carries urine from your bladder down to an opening in front of the vagina. The tube is called the urethra (yoo-REE-thrah). Urine leaves your body through this tube.
The sphincters keep the urethra closed by squeezing like tight rubber bands. The pelvic floor muscles also help keep the urethra closed.
Urine stays inside your body when the pelvic floor and sphincter muscles are tight and the bladder is relaxed.
When the bladder is full, nerves in your bladder signal the brain. That's when you get the urge to go to the bathroom. Once you reach the toilet, your brain sends a message down to the sphincter and pelvic floor muscles. It tells them to relax.
The brain signal also tells the bladder muscles to tighten up. That squeezes urine out of the bladder.
Bladder control means you urinate only when you want to. For good bladder control, all parts of your system must work together.
- Pelvic muscles must hold up the bladder and urethra.
- Sphincter muscles must open and shut the urethra.
- Nerves must control the muscles of the bladder and pelvic floor.
Getting Help | Seeing the Doctor | Tests | Your Bladder Control System | Causes | Treatments | Glossary
Reprinted from the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse
More About Bladder Control for Women
