If I drink a litre of water how soon will I need to pee

[KaylaRose]

Would I need to go pretty much immediately or would it be a couple of hours until I felt the need.

Does 800ml of water mean I have 800ml of urine in my bladder.

sorry for the questions I am just trying to work out if I have retention or just a strong bladder these days.

Drinking 800ml doesn’t mean 800ml in your bladder. Water is needed for internal biological processes and your kidneys will retain as much of that water as is needed to maintain your blood concentration, so less that what is drunk will be expelled over a day (unless you’ve been drinking plenty and none is needed iyswim)

So drinking 800ml this morning wouldn’t mean that I had 800ml of urine in my bladder. I know I must sound mad it’s just I am scared of retention and worry I should be peeing more than I do.

I appreciate your advice.

I had a scan recently and needed a full bladder, and was told to drink 1-2 pints (2 pints is just over a litre) an hour before my scan time. And my bladder was full at the scan. And I needed to go again about half an hour after without drinking anything else.
So based on that I'd say that around an hour to 90 minutes from drinking it to your bladder filling, but, it depends I guess on if you're well hydrated or dehydrated as to how much of that fluid your body needs and how much it expels. I was normally hydrated so the extra was just that - extra to my normal intake so extra to my normal output.

You would know if you are retaining urine. It's painful and uncomfortable.

OP this isn’t the thread you’ve started about this - and in one of them you mention you have health anxiety and wonder if you need help with it. Gently, I think you probably do - please go speak to your GP about having some counselling. I think it will change your life in such a positive way

The first thread, I mean.

@KaylaRose There is no way to know the volume that would be in your urine or bladder as there’s no way to know how many ml of water you’ve lost by eg breathing, sweating etc.
Surely if this was an actual medical problem for you you would be experiencing some symptoms?

Anxiety causes your heart to beat faster, you to breathe more rapidly and expel water through your exhaled breath and sweat. Health anxiety needs professional support, not posting on a website.

I drink at LEAST 6 pints a day. I probably wee 3 times

Do you mean urinary retention? In which case you’d feel pain, have difficulty weeing etc.

or do you mean general fluid retention? That’s also fairly obvious, do you have any swelling in your legs? What colour is your urine? If it’s copious and pale colour likely everything is ok. If it remains darker despite drinking loads then possibly you could be retaining fluid somewhere.

You are right I am sorry.

How long is a piece of string??
I had half a litre of water with breakfast.
I've just emptied my 700ml waterbottle at lunch.
Some days I go to the loo around 2pm. Some days not til I get home about 4.30. I very much doubt I pee out a litre of wee at that point.

I think I am getting myself in to a state over nothing. A while ago I was diagnosed with Chronic UTI as one day I was peeing and literally couldn’t stop and must have peed about 50 times in 24 hours and then I couldn’t pee at all so ended up at the Hospital thinking it was retention. Hospital did a bladder scan and no retention and said it was a UTI even though the Urine test didn’t show it but the Uroligist said Urine tests are pretty inaccurate. Ended up see the late Professor Malone Lee at Harley Street who diagnosed Chronic UTI and eventually recovered although it was a horrendous journey to get there. It has left me with severe Health Anxiety though and I remember the tales of people that had retention and ended up with horrendous Catheter experiences and now that I don’t pee a lot I guess my brain is just making me think there is something wrong when there isn’t.

How frequently do you pee at the moment? If you were in retention you’d feel really uncomfortable and have a distended bladder.

It’s understandable that you feel anxious from your past experiences. I find the more stressed I am the less I pee. Anxiety can cause us to latch on to all sorts of things.

Seek medical attention if you are really worried but think your body knows what to do.

Hope you feel better soon!

@KaylaRose yes I think you are working yourself up needlessly.

You don’t seem to have any other symptoms that would indicate retention?
And you can see from this thread that there’s a huge range in how many ml and how quickly fluids pass through the body.
I think if you had retention you would be in pain and you would be desperately seeking medical help for it.