Is it bad for you to pee in the shower? This is what doctors say

For many, peeing in the shower is a taboo topic, but it’s a practice more common than you might think. A 2015 survey revealed that 61% of Americans admit to urinating in the shower. But is this habit harmless or potentially harmful?

According to most doctors, peeing in the shower is safe. Dr. Sanjey Gupta, Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Southside Hospital, suggests that urinating early in your shower routine can be hygienic, as the soap and water flow provide passive cleaning. Surgical nurse Brook Plato emphasizes the importance of a thorough rinse afterward to prevent the growth of organisms in the moist environment.

“There’s no downside, and it is just convenient for some people,” said Dr. Karyn Eilber, a professor of urology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

Good for the environment

Aside from personal health, peeing in the shower is also beneficial for the environment. Each time you use the toilet, it requires about 1.6 gallons of water per flush. Given that an average adult urinates about seven times a day, this adds up to around 11.1 gallons of water used daily just for flushing urine away. However, if everyone in the U.S. chose to pee in the shower just once a day, it could potentially save around 185 billion gallons of water annually.

The University of East Anglia’s “Go with the Flow” campaign highlighted this idea, estimating that if its 15,000 students peed in the shower instead of flushing every time, they could save enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool 26 times over.

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