Pissing Your Way to Bliss

To experience a “peegasm,” one writer tries not going to the bathroom for a really long time.

By Deanna Rose Morgado

is peeing your way to bliss really possible? (Art:   Sam Graap  )


Would you hold your pee until your bladder felt as if it were about to burst in order to experience an orgasm? Because you purportedly can — if you have a vagina. Known as a “peegasm,” it’s a phenomenon discussed largely on Reddit that is described as an intense, full-body experience comparable to an orgasm. It tends to happen when a woman finally relieves herself after holding in her pee for a prolonged period of time.

In addition to a lot of first-person accounts from females about their experiences, a number of men have also posted about the phenomenon, sharing stories about partners who’ve also experienced peegasms and their dizzying after-effects. Though akin to the big “O,” a lot of first-hand accounts describe peegasms as being “pretty different from clit or vaginal orgasms,” as one commenter wrote. Some women claimed their peegasms were nothing to brag about, mere “tingles” up their spines. Others described them as “delicious,” sending “body shivers” so intense, their eyes teared and their toes curled.

I was intrigued. To think that all I needed to do to experience a pseudo-orgasm was to not answer nature’s call blew my mind, so I decided to try it out for myself. As a mid-20-something, I have a healthy libido and traditional orgasms aren’t a chore for me to achieve on an average day. Plus, I’m no stranger to holding in my pee for prolonged periods of time. The memory of driving through Southern California for three hours with a full bladder on a camping trip still haunts me. But while I knew I could physically do the experiment, I had no idea how my body would respond when I finally expelled it all out. I had to find out.  

How do you have a peegasm?

Of course, the problem with peegasms are that they’re not really a thing, at least not according to modern science.  So even though I had a bunch of posts on Reddit to guide me in my quest, there was no exact formula for how to achieve one. And whatever information I did find online was sparse and generally vague.

I didn’t know how much liquid I should drink or how long I should wait before going to the bathroom. The best I found was from a post that recommended you “hold it until you can’t anymore” or “until you’re about to burst.”   

That sounded painful and got me thinking about the harmful side-effects of trying for a peegasm.

Are peegasms dangerous?

While no one appears to have died from one, some of the women on Reddit said they developed urinary tract infections (or UTIs), which are no fun. They tend to happen when bacteria multiplies in the bladder, leading to painful, burning sensations in the vagina and a frequent need to pee. Basically the path to experiencing a peegasm — holding urine in the bladder for a long period of time — is also a surefire way to catch a UTI.

And there’s always the chance that something worse might happen. A gynecologist in San Francisco — who asked to be anonymous for this article — said she’d never heard of peegasming but that it didn’t sound like “a good idea.” Because it’s not just UTIs you have to worry about. Any infection in the bladder has the potential to make it cramp, swell up, or become overdistended, risking permanent damage to your pelvic nerves.

Still, I was undeterred.

My peegasm quest

To help improve my chances of not getting a UTI, I bought a 24-ounce bottle of organic cranberry juice to sip on after gorging myself with water. I figured I’d just keep drinking it until it hurt. Sure, I might develop a bladder infection from doing this, but the converse could also happen and I could experience an awesome orgasm instead. With an argument like that, modern science and common sense could go to hell.

It wasn’t how I figured I’d spend my Tuesday morning but I was determined. And, because I work from home, there was plenty of privacy for a peegasm first-timer like myself. After consuming 32-ounces of water in around 10 minutes on the first day, it was another 20 minutes until the first hint of having to pee hit me. My jeans started to hurt around that time. The waistband gripped tightly below my navel, putting a steady pressure on my full bladder. When the urge to run to the bathroom was too much of a distraction to continue my daily tasks, I would stand up from my desk and pace around the house. An hour and a half passed until I went to the toilet.

During the last 15 minutes that I held it in, my bladder yearned for relief. However, when the muscles contracted and I finally allowed myself to urinate, I felt nothing. My body, though grateful for the release, did not reciprocate with a peegasm for me. With health in mind, I finished peeing and drank a glass of cranberry juice. Tomorrow was a new day and a new chance for nirvana.

I did better the next day. For three hours, I held the full contents of my bladder, another 32-ounces of water. This time properly dressed in stretchy sweatpants, the last 10 minutes were spent pacing around my living room and kitchen, pausing to hop up and down before looking at my iPhone’s timer once again. I contemplated what it would feel like to pee on myself in my own house. It was hard not to laugh at the twisted irony of how, as children, most of us tried our best not be the kid who peed their pants. Now, as an adult, I was refusing to go to the bathroom, risking complete loss of control of my bladder all to see if I’d experience a seemingly trendy way to orgasm.

As those three three hours neared an end, I noticed an increasing pressure around my pubic bone and vagina.The sensation might have been enough to put me in the mood, but the nagging pressure of my full bladder stepped in like a relentless cockblock. When my three-hour timer concluded, I was ready to relieve the cramping and braced myself for climax.

Nothing happened except for a shiver up my body. The Peegasm Fairy refused me yet another visit. Then again, a shiver was better than nothing. I was glad I experienced a slight arousal when I was holding the pee in, but that frisky feeling and vaginal pressure ceased when I let myself finally go to the bathroom.

Still, it was encouraging. Other Redditors claimed not to have experienced orgasms but described feeling “piss shivers” — tingly sensations up the spine, not the crotch — that sounded similar to what I’d just felt.

Encouraged, I hoped that I’d get closer to having a full-blown peegasm on my next attempt. Third time’s a charm, right?

In the meantime, I decided to do some digging into why the feeling of a full bladder got me slightly aroused. Gynecologists and sexual health experts alike both say that it’s possible for this to happen. Because the urethra, clitoris, and vagina are all close together in the body, when a bladder is full, it can put pressure on those organs. For some women, the pressure can reach the clitoris or its sensitive branches that cause arousal, which was what had started to happen with me. So while there was a chance that I’d never experience a peegasm, at least part of what I was experiencing was normal and supposed to happen. That was a relief.

By the next day, I was almost out of cranberry juice and I took this as a sign that this would  be my final attempt at achieving a peegasm. From 1:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m., I didn’t pee. The constant urge to go put my body in a state of heavy discomfort. I could barely do my work. Instead, I watched a few episodes of The Office, listened to some of my favorite podcasts, and paced back and forth. A lot. The vaginal pressure and muscle cramping came back after the first few hours, eventually leading to the same friskiness it made me feel the day before. This made me feel confident that maybe this was the time I’d reach a peegasm. I tried to focus more on the pleasurable sensations which helped the time go by faster than expected. I considered using my vibrator to enhance my arousal, but was ultimately too concerned that I’d lose control and piss myself.

The familiar piss shivers ran up and down my spine with the same bit of gusto as it had in the second experiment when I finally relieved myself after four and a half hours. But sadly, there was no peegasm that followed — just a super long, unbreakable stream of urine that seemed to last forever.

Was it worth the hurt?

I was bummed that I never achieved a full-on peegasm, but that didn’t mean my quest was fruitless. I got to experience a few interesting body chills and my skin felt really hydrated for a few days after drinking all of that water. Listening so intently to the sensations in my body felt almost spiritual, and I hadn’t paid so much attention to my bodily functions and wellbeing since that time I got food poisoning two years ago and had to be hospitalized.

I also learned that I am not very nice to my boyfriend, or any other human, when I’m about to pee my pants — which, for the record, didn’t happen. Nor, I’m happy to report, did I develop a UTI or any other infection.  

Holding in your pee for a long time is not fun. It’s hard and it’s painful and it’s distracting. But I’m glad I did it. Peegasms are still but a myth to me, but at least I now have something to look forward to the next time I find myself with a seriously full bladder.


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