Post Void Dribbling

Are you leaking a little just after you go to the bathroom? It can be an annoying and sometimes embarrassing problem. With a little education on why the problem occurs, you can find an easy fix.

Why am I dribbling? I just went to the bathroom.

For the majority of men, there is nothing seriously wrong. It may just have to do with how you are urinating. To better understand what is going on, lets talk about some anatomy.

When you urinate, your bladder squeezes to push the urine out. The urine then travels through your prostate,  external sphincter, and penile urethra. Looking at the picture above, you’ll notice that your penis does not end where it attaches to your scrotum, it actually ends further back, behind your testicles and close to your anus. That area of your urethra (the bulbar urethra) is where urine can collect and if you do not get it out before you zip up your pants, you can have some leakage.

What can I do about it?

The first thing to do is change the way you urinate. When you pull your penis out, are your underwear or pants pressing up on the base of your penis? Are your fingers pressing up against  your urethra? Although your stream can still be strong when you are doing either of these things, at the end of urination when your bladder is no longer squeezing, it can be hard to get that remaining urine out when there is any amount of resistance against your urethra.

Try instead to urinate without anything pressing against your penis. Hold down the front of your underwear or pants while you urinate. If that is difficult, try pulling your penis and scrotum out and resting the underwear underneath.

If you are still dripping, gently shake the penis until no more urine drips out.

If you need to, you can “strip” the urethra to push it out. The best way to do this is to use two fingers to compress the urethra and push the urine out. Start in the area between your scrotum and anus and move your fingers forward. Then do the same thing along the under surface of the penis from the penoscrotal junction to the tip.

Another thing to try is contracting your pelvic floor muscles to displace the inner urethra’s contents. The bulbocavernosus muscle lies just underneath your bulbar urethra. When it contracts it compresses the urethra. By actively squeezing the pelvic floor muscle by using 3-5 quick pulsations, the last few drops will be directed into the toilet and not your pants. Here is a video that can teach you how to do this.

Of course the final thing that you can do is wrap some toilet tissue around the tip of the penis to soak up any residual urine.

When to See a Doctor?

If you have some difficulty with urination, including a slow or weak stream, a sensation of incomplete emptying, straining to urinate, urinary urgency, urinary frequency, blood in the urine, severe burning with urination, or recurrent urinary tract infections, these might be signs of something else going on.

Very rarely, pooling of urine can be the result of a urethral diverticulum. If your problem is severe or you have some other symptoms, a urologist can evaluate you for this problem with a retrograde urethrogram or cystoscopy.

Best of luck!

Tillman Hudson, MD

Thank you to Adam Siegel, MD, for providing some information on this posting.