Peeing After Sex: 3 Vital Reasons Why You Should Do It

Peeing after sex is something we recommend most women do. It has health benefits despite the awkward walk to the bathroom. But forget about that. We’ll explain everything you need to know about peeing after sex. After you read this, you’re sure to make peeing after sex a regular part of your post-coital routine.

3 Benefits of Peeing After Sex

1. Cleans Up Any Cum

If you’re used to having sex using a condom, you’re in for quite a surprise the first time you have sex without using one. You’ll have lots of cum to clean up. If he came inside you, the semen will remain in your vagina until you stand up and gravity does its job. You can dab your vagina with a tissue, but you can really clean up all the cum by peeing and then cleaning the area. If you pee after sex, you naturally clean up.

But then, when you come back to bed, you still have the wet spot issue to contend with. Fun, huh. You can try to avoid the wet spot, which is difficult to do, or if this is a regular sex partner you’re with, plan ahead. Put down a towel or another sheet first. Then you can simply remove the towel or sheet and get a good night’s sleep.

Sex blankets like those made by Liberator are also an option, and sprays containing talc can dry that wet spot so you have somewhere comfortable to sleep.

2. Reduces Likelihood of UTI

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is something you want to avoid. Having one makes it painful to pee and can cause cramps and lower back pain. UTIs are actually pretty common – one out of every five women will get a UTI at some point in their lives. And women are 10 times more likely to get a UTI than men are. Sex is one of the leading causes of UTIs in women. Almost 80 percent of premenopausal women who have a UTI had sex 24 hours before getting the infection.

Here’s how sex and UTIs are related: The tube everyone has that allows pee to discharge from the bladder is called the urethra. (Note that semen as well as urine comes from a man’s urethra.) A woman’s urethra is 3-4cm (1.5 inches) long [1] and located near the vaginal entrance (the U-spot), and a man’s urethra is 8 inches long. Because a woman has a shorter urethra than a man does, bacteria have a shorter distance to travel to get to a woman’s bladder. And if that happens, the result could be a urinary tract infection (UTI).

Get an anatomy refresher here.

Sexual intercourse causes bacteria to get into the urethra. Why? Some bacteria remain in the vagina and anus after using the bathroom, and your partner’s penis (or fingers) could introduce bacteria, too. Penetration during intercourse lets some of those bacteria into the urethra, and sex can also irritate your urethra.

Once the bacteria get into the urethra, they could make their way to the bladder. But you can stop that from happening by peeing right after sex. The urine flushes out those nasty bacteria, saving your bladder from becoming infected. So remember to pee after sex to help prevent a UTI.

3. Gives You a Few Moments Alone

Besides cleaning up, when you pee after sex, you can collect your thoughts. If you’re a new couple, you can evaluate what you thought about the sex and how you feel about him. This is often easier to do when you’re alone in the bathroom. You can also ponder whether you think he enjoyed what you just did and whether he’d be up for Round 2.

Or you can check your phone when you pee after sex. If you just know you’ll need to look at your phone soon after sex, keep it in the bathroom. It’s kind of rude to roll over to check your phone right after sex, but if you keep it in the bathroom, you can check it to your heart’s content. You had to go in there to pee anyway, didn’t you?

How to Go About Peeing After Sex

Keep a towel, tissues, or an old T-shirt nearby. You can also use a tissue or baby wipe. If you keep those items in your bedroom, you can have a quick cleanup. This makes walking to the bathroom more comfortable by helping prevent you from leaking semen from the bed to the bathroom.

The good news is that you don’t have to pee immediately after sex. It’s fine to bask in good feelings and cuddle for a while, up to 45 minutes or so, before excusing yourself. You just don’t want to fall asleep for the night before peeing. If you wait for hours, you risk that UTI.

When You Can’t Pee After Sex

Sometimes, try as you might, you simply can’t pee after sex. This happens because your body releases a hormone after you have an orgasm, and that hormone makes it difficult to pee. It won’t allow the muscles that control urine to relax. And trying to squeeze out a little bit of pee won’t help to flush out your system enough to help prevent a UTI anyway.

A wet wipe is okay to use right after sex, but it won’t help prevent a UTI, so try to pee after sex as soon as possible. The hormone’s effects won’t last all night. Try to pee before 45 minutes go by. It might also help you to pee if you stay hydrated. Make sure you drink enough water throughout the day to allow you to pee every few hours.

If you are prone to UTIs, you may think that drinking cranberry juice can help prevent them, but there doesn’t appear to be a lot of scientific proof of this. And studies have shown that it won’t help with treating the infection once it’s present [2].

No Need to Pee Before Sex

Unless you really have to go, wait to pee until after sex. You might hear that it’s better to pee both before and after sex, but urologist David Kaufman, MD, says that it’s better to wait and have a “strong stream” of pee to help push out the bad bacteria. If you do have to go before sex, drink a glass of water right after. That will help ensure you can pee after sex.

Squirting may also help clean our your urethra during sex, which is good news if you’re a squirter!

Related: Squirting 101

More on Hygiene

Having clean hands (his and yours), toys, and penis can help reduce the likelihood of UTIs or bacterial vaginosis. Using condoms, even if you’re on birth control, may also help. But having a UTI doesn’t mean you’re an unclean person.

Speaking of UTIs and bacterial vaginosis, here’s some more information on some basics you should know about both.

UTI: A UTI can be only in your bladder, but it could also affect your kidneys. If it does spread to the kidneys, the infection is more serious. We mentioned earlier that it will be painful to pee with a UTI and after sex (discover other causes of pain after sex), but pain isn’t the only symptom. You might be able to pee only a small amount at a time, and your pee could be cloudy or smelly. If the infection has gone to your kidneys, you might also have a high fever, nausea, and vomiting.

Some women are more prone to getting UTIs. If you’ve had three UTIs in a year, it’s clear that you are prone to getting them. Discuss this with your doctor who can talk with you about treatment and prevention methods.

You should also see a doctor if you have symptoms of a UTI so that you can get on antibiotic treatment. When you treat your UTI, you will probably not get any complications from the infection, but if you don’t treat it, there is a bigger possibility of complications. An untreated UTI could lead to recurring infections, kidney damage, and sepsis. And pregnant women who get a UTI and don’t treat it could deliver prematurely. But when you start taking antibiotics, your symptoms could clear up in just a few days.

Note that antibiotics may make your birth control less effective, so talk to your doctor.

Besides peeing after sex, another way to help prevent getting a UTI is to change your birth control method if you use a diaphragm or a spermicide-treated condom. Both methods can lead to bacterial growth, and spermicides such as nonoxynol-9 may also contribute to contracting an STI [3] because the get rid of both the bad AND good bacteria in your vagina. So remember to pee after sex and to use birth control that doesn’t aid bacteria.

Vaginosis: Vaginosis is another bacterial infection you could get from having sex. This infection affects your vagina. If you have vaginosis, you might have white or gray vaginal discharge that has a strong, fishy vaginal odor. Your vagina could be itchy, and like a UTI, you could find it painful to pee.

Symptoms of vaginosis are similar to a yeast infection. You can’t, however, treat vaginosis from over-the-counter medications as you can a yeast infection. Your doctor can tell you whether you have vaginosis or not and can prescribe antibiotics.

The risk factor for vaginosis is increased when you have a new sex partner or if you have multiple sex partners. Being pregnant is a risk factor for vaginosis because of the hormonal changes your body undergoes during this time. The IUD form of birth control also contributes to vaginosis incidents.

Read more about bacterial vaginosis.

Good hygiene is important to help prevent vaginosis, but hygiene appears not to be the cause of UTI [4]. Keep your vagina and anus clean, wipe from front to back, and air out your vulva from time to time. Wear underwear made from natural, breathable materials and pants that aren’t too tight.

When you clean your vagina, use warm water, and do not douche. When you douche, you remove the good bacteria that protect you from the bad, vaginosis-causing bacteria. Douching may also upset your pH balance. Vaginal bleach could also disrupt your pH balance. More on that.

Peeing after sex might not be sexy, but it’s definitely hotter than a painful infection, so get into the habit now of peeing after sex.