A bladder diary can help track the timing of your fluid intake, voids, and any leaking you may experience. This information is valuable for identifying patterns and gaining awareness!
Depending on what you learn from your bladder diary, you may benefit from bladder training to create more comfortable bladder habits. You may also learn that you have sensitivity to certain bladder irritants, and decide to modify your diet accordingly.
You can use a phone app, keep a free form electronic or paper note, or use the simple PDF template downloadable here as your bladder diary!
Keep your diary for at least one day (two or three is even better!) and make sure that you note the following important information:
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- Fluid intake
- What did you drink?
- How much?
- At what time?
- Voiding
- What time did you pee?
- How urgently did you need to go (mild/moderate/significant urge)?
- How full was your bladder? (you can count how many seconds you were peeing)
- Leaking
- What time?
- What was the circumstance? (with a strong urge, with a cough or sneeze, etc)
- Fluid intake
Examples of what you might see in your bladder diary:
- How frequently you pee: This is often something that we don’t know until we track it! If you pee 13 times per day (or 3!) this may indicate that a change would be helpful.
- When you pee: You may notice that you go 4 times right before bed, or don’t go for 6 hours during the course of your morning meetings. Gaining awareness of your timing can be just as important as how many total times you go in the day.
- The effect of bladder irritants: You may see that after you eat or drink a certain bladder irritant, you have increased frequency of urinary urge and are more likely to leak with that urge.