5 Reasons To Pee In The Shower Every Morning

Peeing in the shower is America’s best-kept secret. Yup, you read that right, but for the record: I came into this a skeptic. Like most people, I was raised to believe peeing in the shower is not only taboo, but outright unhygienic. A victimless crime, perhaps, but a crime against common decency nonetheless, right?

Well, I can admit when I’m wrong, and I was wrong about peeing in the shower. Peeing in the shower should be mandatory. Or at the very least, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Why? Because…

1. Everyone else is already doing it
If, like me, you’ve never sprung a leak during a shower, then you’re part of a minority. A poll by glamour magazine found around 75 percent of women already pee in the shower. Another survey from Buzzfeed found 80 percent of their readers — both men and women — admitted to the occasional sneaky sprinkle.

Speaking on behalf of that other 20 to 25 percent, I can say this revelation made me feel a bit like that guy who didn’t know what toilet seats are for. It’s like my entire life has been a lie. Heck, odds are, you pee in the shower. Be honest, you do, don’t you? Statistically, you’re more likely to pee in the shower than know pretty much anything about the U.S. Constitution. You’re more likely to believe in Bigfoot than genuinely believe peeing in the shower is a bad idea. So relax: everybody is already doing it.

2. It’ll save a lot of waterBack in 2014, students at the University of East Anglia in Norwich calculated they could save a pretty large amount of water if all their colleagues peed in the shower once a day. By large, I mean “enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool 26 times” annually. In other words, the university would conserve the equivalent of one Olympic-sized pool every two weeks. In fact, flushing the toilet accounts for between a quarter and a third of all the water you consume over the course of your life. So save water, and pee in the shower.

3. It’s actually not that gross
Peeing in the shower is a disgusting thing to do, right? Well, not so fast. According to urologist Dr. Philip Werthman, your shower pee isn’t much worse than the cocktail of bacteria-ridden bodily excrement you already send down the drain.

Think about it: you’re already washing off a day (or more, perhaps) of sweat and grime. Your shower drain already deals with some pretty gross stuff, so a bit of urine isn’t going to make much difference. “At the end of the day no one is getting sick, so it’s fine,” Werthman said.

4. It saves toilet paperWater isn’t the only thing you’ll save by peeing in the shower; for women, you might be able to save as much as one roll of toilet paper every two months by peeing in the shower. Okay, so that’s not much, but it’s still something, right? How about the fact that just reaching for the toilet paper can expose you to more germs than anything on the actual toilet seat? That’s right, toilet paper is disgusting, and peeing in the shower is just fine.

5. It’s good exercise
For women, peeing in the shower can be an opportunity to exercise your pelvic floor muscles. Exercising this muscle group can reduce the common condition of urinary incontinence. Oh, and the exercises can also improve orgasms.

So there we have it. If you’re not doing it already, then go ahead and pee in the shower. Everyone else is already doing it. Are you convinced? Let us know what you think about peeing in the shower in the comments below.

— Ryan Mallett-Outtrim