Posted by Andrew on 15/8/2008, 3:48 pm, in reply to "Can it be dangerous?"

Hi Sem Can it be dangerous: well we do not know for sure. However the medics do take "urinary retention" seriously: if you went to A&E they would catheterise you sharpish. We are not medically trained, so take this with a pinch of salt: I think that it is something to do with building up back pressure so that the kidneys cannot operate properly; perhaps at some point it may damage them. But usually the pain is such that the individual either gets catheterised, or finds a safe place to void. As for not being able to go in the public loo: this was probably your external sphincter (the one you control) being in spasm due to having been locked tightly shut for so long. I know that if I have had to hold on (say in a motorway traffic jam) my flow is very slow to start with, again because the sphinctre cannot fully open to start with and relaxes over time. If you have to travel like that again, it would pay you to get some catheters for self-catheterisation; it is easy to do and means you can empty on demand; guys often find they do not need to use one because they are so much more relaxed having it to hand. There are postings about this here. Hope that helps? Andrew

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