Why It's SO Important For Women To Pee After Having Sex

I don't think I had even gotten my period when I learned just how important it is to pee after having sex. 

Of course, I wasn't even in double digits, so I assumed that women peed after sex to keep themselves from getting pregnant.

Yup, even as a youth my imagination skewed toward that of your average 19th century prostitute. It's a miracle I wasn't asking my mother for lye so that I might effectively cleanse my vagina. 

As I grew up, menstruated and actually, you know, started having sex, using the restroom after you had sex was still something I knew I was supposed to be doing, though I couldn't for the life of me tell you why.

I would wake up in the arms of some hot man (envy me) and curse at myself for falling asleep without having done the medically mandated post-sex pee. 

But the truth is, nothing negative has ever come of this. I have not gotten a yeast infection. I have not gotten a urinary tract infection. I have not gotten an STD. I have not gotten pregnant.

All of this (in addition to being awesome) also has left me feeling slightly baffled.

If using the toilet after sex is so important, then why am I, a known not post-sex peer, still alive happy, with a healthy (dare I say) down right chipper vagina?

I decided to look into the scuttlebutt behind peeing after sex and here's what I found:

Not peeing after sex can cause a UTI, or urinary tract infection.

Women have very short urethras, compared with males. Because of this, acts like sex which push bacteria into our urethras, can put us at a higher risk for getting a urinary tract infection. 

If you want to make the odds higher of getting a bacterial infection, trying having sex in a hot tub and having anal sex or any sort of ass play. 

If you were less than spotless of butt and/or your man didn't don a glove before plundering your ass-palace, that furthers the risk of bacterial infectional in the cases where fecal matter enters your vagina. 

Peeing flushes out bacteria, making it a smart thing to do after sex, especially if you're a person who is prone to UTIs.

There's no ticking clock to when you should pee after sex if you are prone to urinary tract infections. Like, you don't need to flee the afterglow, just try to go at some point soon after.

Holding in your pee is much worse than NOT peeing after sex, because it can increase the amount of bacteria up in your bits and make UTIs even worse! 

Keep that i mind ... and if you feel the need to pee during sex, after sex, or like even during the day when no sex is being had always go to the bathroom!

What does a UTI feel like? Answer: crazy painful.

If you have to ask yourself if you've never had a UTI then you have never had a UTI. 

The symptoms are absolutely brutal. You can feel tired and shaky, and in the cases where it effects your kidneys (a thing it totally can do) it can even cause a fever.

Other UTI symptoms include frequent urination, a burning feeling every time you, feeling like you have to pee and nothing coming out, dark colored urine and intense pain in your lower back and abdomen. 

A UTI starts in the bladder but if left untreated it can progress to your kidneys causing the more painful symptoms. 

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Some people are more prone to UTIs than others.

It sucks, but it's true.

For every me (a person who has yet to be brutalized by a UTI) there is a person who feels like they are constantly waging war against their blasted urethra.

“Some people may have risk factors that make them get UTIs such as diabetes, kidney stones, or abnormalities in the urinary tract," says Mamta Mamik, M.D. 

If you get mor than three UTIs a year, you should talk to your doctor as you a member of the frequent UTI club. ... Welcome. It's terrible here. 

Thankfully, your doctor can talk to you about treatment options, huzzah! 

Guess what?

If you never pee after sex (like myself) and you keep on having a healthy vagina and bladder (like myself) you don't need to change your sex habits and start peeing now. 

As long as you are keeping hydrated, peeing regularly and are otherwise healthy, consider yourself off the hook when it comes to urinating after sex. 

Lift a glass and rejoice with me — just remember to pee said water out later. 

Rebecca Jane Stokes is a sex, humor and lifestyle writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cat, Batman. She hosts the sex, love, and dating advice show Becca After Dark on YourTango's Facebook Page every Tuesday and Thursday. For more of her work, click here.