Digital Urology Journal: bladder control and your body's design

Bladder Control and your Body's Design

Why learn about bladder control?

Good bladder control sounds simple. Just hold on until you get to the bathroom.

It sounds simple. But good bladder control takes teamwork from many organs, muscles, and nerves in your body.

Image of the pelvic bowl region showing the relationship of pertaining organs.

What are the parts of the bladder control system?

Most of your bladder control system lies inside the 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. Your hands lie on the rim of the bowl. The bottom of the bowl, between your legs, is muscle.

Four important body systems work inside the pelvic bowl:

The bladder control system.

The bladder is a muscle shaped like a balloon. It holds urine.
The urethra (yoo-REE-thrah) is a tube from the bladder that drains urine out of the body.
Two sphincter (SFINK-tur) muscles help the urethra open and close.

Image showing the relation between the brain and the bladder. Text reads: The brain sends nerve signals telling muscles to hold urine or let it out. Nerves send signals to the brain. The signals tell when the bladder is full or empty.

The female system.

The womb, or uterus(YOO-ter-us), is an organ where your monthly periods come from and where unborn babies develop.
The vagina (vuh-JY-nuh) is a canal where blood from your periods leaves the body and where babies come out.

The digestive system.

The rectum (REK-tum) is an area where bowel movements go from the intestine.
The anus (AY-nus) is the opening where bowel movements leave your body.

The nervous system.

Nerves send messages from your brain to your bladder and from your bladder to your brain.
Muscles open and close to release or to hold urine.


	Pelvic floor muscles used for bladder control will grow stronger with daily exercise.

What do bladder control muscles do?

Three sets of muscles control urine. One set is the bladder muscle itself. The second set is sphincter muscles that open and close the urethra. The third set is the muscles at the bottom of the pelvic bowl. They are called the pelvic floor muscles. They support the uterus, rectum, and bladder.

Sometimes pelvic muscles get stretched and weak. When this happens, organs in the pelvic bowl sag. Then women have trouble holding their urine. Luckily, exercising the pelvic muscles can often make them strong again.

Image of the bladder, and the related muscles used in the urination process.

Healthy sphincter muscles can keep the urethra closed.

Sometimes nerves are damaged by childbirth or other events. The damaged nerves signal the bladder muscles to squeeze urine out at the wrong times. Medical treatment can help women with this problem.

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.

Points to Remember

Good bladder control results from many body systems working together.
Three muscle systems control urine flow: the bladder muscle, sphincter muscles, and pelvic floor muscles.
Many things can cause poor bladder control. The good news is that many medical treatments can help.

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The National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse is a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, of the National Institutes of Health, under the U.S. Public Health Service. Established in 1987, the clearinghouse provides information about diseases of the kidneys and urologic system to people with these disorders and to their families, health care professionals, and the public. The clearinghouse answers inquiries; develops, reviews, and distributes publications; and works closely with professional and patient organizations and government agencies to coordinate resources about kidney and urologic diseases.

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Bladder Control: Let's talk about bladder control for women. There's treatment that works.

Let's Talk about Bladder Control for Women is a public health awareness campaign conducted by the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC), an information dissemination service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health.

1-800-891-5388

NIH Publication No. 97-4187
January 1997

The information provided in this section should in no way serve as medical advice. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained here with other sources and seek medical advice from a physician. Neither the authors nor any other party who has been involved in the preparation or publication of this work warrants that the information contained herein is in every respect accurate or complete and they are not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained for the use of such information.

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