Bladder retraining will increase the time between bathroom visits and help you control the urge to urinate.

• Keep a record of how much you drink and how often you empty your bladder. Measuring the amount of urine you pass is very helpful. The record should be kept for one to three days.
• A healthcare professional should review the record and find the average time between bathroom visits.
• Start by scheduling bathroom visits an extra 15 minutes apart. For example, if you were going to the bathroom once every hour on average, start with a schedule of one hour and 15 minutes (during the daytime).
• If you get the urge to go to the bathroom before the next scheduled visit, you should not rush to the bathroom, but stay calm, sit or stand still.
• You should try to stop the urge to go by:
  • taking a deep breath, relaxing and breathing slowly
  • squeezing the pelvic floor muscles quickly. Do this five to ten times
  • distracting yourself, for example count backwards from 100 or do something else.
• Once the urge is gone, you should wait until the next scheduled bathroom visit. If the urge returns before then, you should repeat the steps to try and stop the urge.
• When you are able to maintain the schedule without accidents in between, increase the schedule by another 15 minutes. It may be possible to increase the schedule by 30 minutes instead of 15. A timer may help to remind you to keep to your schedule.
• Continue with this process until you can last for a period of time between bathroom visits which is convenient for you.

Top tips

• Bring your completed bladder record when you meet with your healthcare professional. It will help both of you determine your best treatment plan.
• Drink five to eight cups of fluid per day. You may find that avoiding tea, coffee, chocolate, colas or alcohol helps. These may irritate the bladder and cause the urge to empty your bladder.
• Don’t worry if you have to go to the bathroom occasionally before the set time. Keep at it, improvement may take several months.
• These are guidelines. Everybody is unique and different people may find their own ‘tricks’ which work for them.