Post-micturition dribble is the loss of a few drops of urine after you have finished urinating. It’s not to be confused with something called ‘terminal dribble’, where the last part of passing urine slows down so much that the flow can be described as a dribble or trickle [1].
is largely suffered by men, but can also affect women. This can occur at any age. With men, post-micturition dribble usually happens after you have put your clothes back on following urination when you find a small patch of urine staining your underwear. With women, post-micturition dribble usually happens a little earlier, often as soon you’ve got up from the toilet.
This action is involuntary and occurs as a result of there being urine remaining in the urethra after a trip to the toilet. Although you may have some reservations about seeking help about this, post-micturition dribble affects a large portion of men – somewhere between 5 and 55% of people. if the symptoms persists, it should be treated and there are a number of options available.
A common cause of is often caused weakened pelvic floor muscles which surround the urethra. The can be weakened by:
• A fragile bulbourethral muscle in men causing the inner part of your urethra behind the scrotum to sag slightly, and as a result, urine will gather after a trip to the toilet. When the muscles move i.e. when you walk away from the toilet, this urine is released
• A lack of support from muscles linked to the urethra in women
• Operations for an enlarged
• Continual straining to empty the bowels, especially when constipated
• Constant cough, for example, a smoker’s cough
• Being overweight
• Neurological damage
• Persistent heavy lifting
As post-micturition occurs because of urine remaining in the urethra after voiding, the following method helps to push out the last remaining drops. Practice this and you should find that it helps reduce or even prevent dribbling. The technique is as follows:
When you’ve finished passing urine, wait for a few seconds. This will ensure that the bladder have completely emptied
Place your fingertips behind the scrotum, leaving a gap of three fingerbreadths, and apply gentle pressure
Men suffering with erectile dysfunction are more likely to experience 2 and, at the time of writing, there are clinical trials to test whether medicines for erectile dysfunction can be effective in treating post-micturition dribble.
Sources
1 Yang & Lee 2019 Investig Clin Urol. 2019 May; 60(3): 142–147. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6495033/
2 Yang et al. 2018 World J Mens Health. 2018 Sep; 36(3): 263–270.
