Your Body's Design for Bladder Control
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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.
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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.
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.
What do bladder control muscles do?
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Pelvic floor muscles used for bladder control will grow stronger with daily exercise.
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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.
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Healthy sphincter muscles can keep the urethra closed.
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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.
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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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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
National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse
3 Information Way
Bethesda, MD 20892–3580
Phone: 1–800–891–5390
Fax: 703–738–4929
Email: nkudic@info.niddk.nih.gov
Internet: www.kidney.niddk.nih.gov/
The National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC) is a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The NIDDK is part of the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Established in 1987, the Clearinghouse provides information about diseases of the kidneys and urologic system to people with kidney and urologic disorders and to their families, health care professionals, and the public. The NKUDIC answers inquiries, develops and distributes publications, and works closely with professional and patient organizations and Government agencies to coordinate resources about kidney and urologic diseases.
Publications produced by the Clearinghouse are carefully reviewed by both NIDDK scientists and outside experts.
This publication is not copyrighted. The Clearinghouse encourages users of this publication to duplicate and distribute as many copies as desired.
NIH Publication No. 02–4187
April 2002
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