How to improve your male bladder symptoms

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that stretch like a hammock from the pubic bone at the front, to the coccyx (tailbone) at the back and from one side of the pelvis to the other.

The pelvic floor muscles support your bladder and bowel. The openings from these organs (the urethra from the bladder and the rectum from the bowel) pass through the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor muscles wrap firmly around these passages to help keep them shut.

When the pelvic floor muscles are strong they help prevent the leaking of urine (wee) and stool (poo). The pelvic floor muscles also help with sexual function.

The following video is useful to see these muscles in your body.

Please have a look at our leaflet on Pelvic Floor Exercises for Men and also the Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapists (POGP) Men's Health page.

Pelvic floor exercises need done regularly - usually this means 3 times per day. It can be challenging to remember to do pelvic floor exercises regularly so you might find using an App on your phone helpful Squeezy NHS is a really good option and only costs a few pounds.

Certain drinks and foods can worsen some bladder issues. Drinks or foods that contain caffeine, are very acidic or contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or saccharine can irritate the bladder. Fizzy or carbonated drinks and alcohol can also do this.

It can feel like cutting down on your fluid intake should help your bladder symptoms but this can make things worse by making your urine too concentrated and make your symptoms worse. You should aim to drink between 1.5-2L of fluid per day (6-10 mugs).

NHS Tayside have patient information leaflets on Caffeine Reduction and Foods and Drinks that Can Irritate the Bladder.

Please look at our Urgency & Frequency section which describes bladder training techniques and our patient information leaflet.

Constipation can impact on your bladder and pelvic floor function. Please have a look at our information leaflets on Constipation, Good Toilet Positioning and Golden Linseeds for Constipation. You can also see our section on Bowel Problems for more information and videos on this topic.

We have linked some other information that you might find helpful below