Bathroom issue after sex, but was it fromt he sex or from something else?

August 21, 2011 8:00 PM

Bathroom issue after sex, but was it the sex's fault?

Weird situation :) I am a healthy older-ish (early 30s) woman who, for various reasons has delayed having sex. Boyfriend and I were ready, thought it would be less stress to do it on neutral territory and so went out of town for weekend of fun and games. It worked---we got the sex thing done and it was fine. But just after it was done, I went to the bathroom----and then continued doing so every hour or so for the rest of the night! I kept getting up and feeling like I had to go, went, and then then a short time later, felt I had to go again.

Boyfriend, who has extensive medical experience with bathroom issues, was unalarmed when I told him. He said that we had been driving all day, were in an unfamiliar place, had been eating very salty food (the dinner we had was a large chain restaurant was, in particular very salty) and so my body had been under stress even before the sex was introduced. He said he bet I was having a reaction to the salt because I was dehydrated from the driving and the traveling already, and that the sex had nothing to do with it. He forced about 4 bottles of water on me over the course of the following morning and by lunchtime, I was back to normal and completely fine, but a little skittish about repeating the sex until I was sure that everything was back to normal.

So, was he right and I had some sort of bizarre dehydration response prompted by tiredness, travel and a salty restaurant dinner? Or was the sex itself the cause of the bathroom issue? Or could it be a combination? As I said, I am 100% fine now. The only issue is that I don't want to be up all night going to the bathroom if we have sex again. If the issue really was some sort of sex reaction, I'd like to know what could be done to mitigate this next time. Or if the issue actually was dehydration made worse by the salt, and I can try the sex again with him, worry free, I'd like to know that too.

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (12 answers total)

You don't say what kind of bathroom issues. Frequent urination? Diarrhea? I don't think the question is answerable.
posted by desjardins at 8:05 PM on August 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm going to guess that you mean peeing a lot. It was probably a little of both (i.e. both the salty food/dehydration and the sex). Sometimes, especially if you orgasm, it takes a little while for all your lady parts to feel normal again. Happens to me occasionally. Not something to worry about.
posted by phunniemee at 8:10 PM on August 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

found this by googling "frequent urination after sex" and it seemed like a reasonable explanation:

Sounds like what they call Honeymoon Cystitis, it's a urinary infection that can be caused by sex, and although you don't have to have just come back from honeymoon to get it that's what they call it. The infection itself is Cystitis, symptoms are frequent urination, and pain or burning when you pass water, plus sometimes a feeling that you have more water to pass but it won't come out.
Honeymoon Cystitis is common in women and girls who have just started having sex or women who have gone back to having sex after a long period of no sex. Lower urinary tract (LUT) symptoms in women are very common after sexual intercourse. Cystitis means inflammation of the bladder and it is usually, but not invariably due to infection. Bacteria are often pushed mechanically up the urethra and into the bladder during coitus. The male urethra, being substantially longer, is not susceptible to the same problem.
The term 'honeymoon' was applied because, in the past, this was expected to be the time of first intercourse. Of course, the condition of post-coital female lower urinary tract infection occurs at many times beyond the traditional 'honeymoon' - from the onset of sexual activity into old age.

Read more: Sexual Health - Women Forum - Frequent Urination after Sex http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic121364.html#b#ixzz1VivNyUWd
posted by Raichle at 8:10 PM on August 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

Well... sex can lead to urinary tract infections, which can make you need to pee waay too often. But I think they usually take a couple of hours, at least, to kick in- this was right after having sex? Did you have any other symptoms?
posted by MadamM at 8:11 PM on August 21, 2011

I agree with Raichle. You may not have sustained the bruising of the bladder (traumatic cystitis) but you may got up in it's grill enough to irritate things. It may just be a period of 'getting used to things' for a while.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 8:17 PM on August 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sounds like what they call Honeymoon Cystitis, i

Definitely not enough time for this to set in. I think your boyfriend was right.

In fact, it's recommended that you pee after sex to avoid UTIs, so it's kind of nice your body took care of this for you.
posted by Miko at 8:17 PM on August 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd say there are a few potential causes, but it's nothing to worry about. The salty food/dehydration/new place, on top of the nervousness I'm sure you were experiencing, could all cause a stressed reaction on your body. Also, you're physically using a part of your body that you haven't used before. It has to adjust.

However, if you're stressed about having sex again, you need to find a way to relax before doing so. It will make the sex less pleasurable and could cause other reactions of stress such as trouble sleeping... no point in that :) If you have a normal stress reliever, try that.
posted by DoubleLune at 8:27 PM on August 21, 2011

Yeah, I find that a desperate need to pee over and over is, in my life, usually the first sign of a urinary tract infection coming on. I'm not a doctor, but I did used to get an awful lot of UTIs and talked to an awful lot of doctors about them! I agree that there are other possible causes, but for a moment let me address what you need to know if indeed it was a short-lived UTI.

Right after sex would be too soon for it to start for real, but my guess is that the first time or two that you peed were normal but then the UTI-related frequency started up during the night. Drinking four bottles of water was a great idea because you probably flushed it out! Among the other standard recommendations for dealing with UTIs are all-cotton undies all the time, peeing RIGHT AFTER sex (no, no snuggles first. and wipe carefully front-to-back), and drinking cranberry juice (ONLY pure 100% unsweetened cranberry juice, which by the way is nearly undrinkable imho, in addition to being expensive and hard to find. Any sort of sweetened version will make it worse). None of these things are going to hurt you even if it turns out your bathroom issue had nothing to do with UTIs, so it may be worth trying them. Maybe taking some precautions will help you feel calmer about having sex again?

If this ever happens again and you start feeling some pain during urination, get yourself to a doctor or urgent care clinic as fast as you possibly can, because let me warn you, by the time a UTI gets itself all revved up, it hurts like peeing shards of burning glass. You want to get tested (pee in a cup, get the results same visit), get the numbing pills that turn your pee an ungodly shade of orange (actually you can get these at the drugstore, at least where I live), and get on the antibiotics asap, because it won't get better on its own.

Even if this has the potential to be a UTI issue though, you obviously shouldn't let it stop you from having sex again!! Besides the pain (which is in truth very easily fixed -- the orange-pee pills are magic), it's my understanding that UTIs aren't a terribly serious issue so long as you recognize and deal with them promptly. And if you seem to be falling into the Honeymoon Cystitis trap, where you get UTIs repeatedly, there's always prophylactic post-coitus antibiotics (also magic. haven't had a UTI since).
posted by ootandaboot at 8:37 PM on August 21, 2011

My non-medical and barely informed guess as a lady who has had sex, is that you rubbed and slightly bruised the area around your urethral opening, and then your pee was more concentrated because of the dehydration, so peeing was a little weird, unfamiliar and uncomfortable. It's also possible everything was a bit swollen up from extra blood in the region, so you had a hard time peeing completely. I find that once I start thinking about needing to pee, I need to pee a little, and it's hard to get rid of the feeling even after I go, I keep second guessing myself, maybe something like that happened to you.

I think you did the right thing by peeing soon after sex, and your boyfriend did totally the right thing by getting you to drink water - that should calm down and flush out anything low grade. If you ever have weird pee symptoms the next morning, go to the doctor, UTIs are no fun.

Oh, and early 30's is "older-ish" now? Oh god.
posted by crabintheocean at 9:01 PM on August 21, 2011

You don't say what kind of bathroom issues. Frequent urination? Diarrhea? I don't think the question is answerable.

It seems pretty clear that the issue is that she had to urinate every hour all night after sex.

I highly doubt it's a UTI... It came on too fast and you said you are 100% fine now. I suspect that your boyfriend was right, but at least try it again to see if it happens again!
posted by amro at 4:28 AM on August 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

To help prevent issues, try taking a little D-Mannose powder dissolved in water. I've taken it for UTI's and it absolutely works. Plus taking this before sex should absolutely help put your mind at ease.

Additionally, while researching the efficacy of this supplement, it's recommended to take before sex if you are prone to UTI's.

It can pretty pricey. Try not to pay more than $15 or $20 bucks for the powder. Avoid the capsules they are a bad value. Buy it at a supplements vitamin store because it is cheaper there. If you buy at whole foods or any other health food store, you'll be paying 3x's the price for the same product.

You won't need this forever! Just until you, uh, get used to things down there. You body will adjust. But until then, it's OK if you take something to help matters, just in case and all that.



.
posted by jbenben at 7:25 AM on August 22, 2011

I am a male but I experience the same symptoms sometimes after sex. It doesn't happen often enough to be a real problem, although it sure is annoying when it happens. It never seems to develop into full-blown UTIs, but maybe I'm just lucky in being less prone to them than women. I haven't actually nailed down the cause, but I generally attribute it to irritation of my urethra for some reason or another. It seems to be correlated with sex after a sweaty day, or the consumption of alcohol, or both (which I guess could be dehydration either way).
posted by sockmonster at 7:29 AM on August 22, 2011