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Urinary retention: when you cannot pee, or cannot empty your bladder
For anyone who suddenly cannot pee, who goes but never feels empty, or who looks after someone who has this. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says urinary retention is not a disease but a condition linked to other health problems; that acute urinary retention, a sudden inability to urinate, can be life threatening and needs emergency treatment right away; and that chronic retention may cause few or no symptoms but can still cause serious health problems. This page passes on, by name, what NIDDK says: the two kinds, the signs and how common it is; what can cause it, medicines included; the visit and the tests; the treatment (draining the bladder with a catheter, medicines, procedures, surgery); and what you can do. It builds the words to say, so you do not have to find them, and prints a card to keep with you.
Right now
- Suddenly unable to pee at all, maybe with bad pain or swelling low in your belly? NIDDK says it can be life threatening: seek emergency medical treatment right away. Ours: go to an emergency room now, and if you cannot get there safely and quickly, call 911.
- Had surgery or a back injury, and now peeing has changed? NIDDK says retention is common after surgery and can follow a back injury. Ours: in the hospital, tell your nurse; at home, call your team today, or go now if you cannot pee at all.
- Just started a new medicine, or took a cold or allergy medicine? NIDDK says some medicines can cause it. Ours: never stop a prescribed medicine on your own; call and ask.
- Worn down, or thinking of ending your life? Call or text 988, any hour (ours).
More help
- On this site: Kidneys and bladder: find the right page · Enlarged prostate (BPH) · Prostatitis · Bladder leaks · Bladder infection.
- What can sit behind it: Constipation · Diabetes · Parkinson’s disease · Stroke · Kidney disease.
- The tests: Getting ready for urodynamic tests · Getting ready for a cystoscopy.
- Getting ready: My medicines list · Get ready for your appointment · When you can’t afford your medicine · When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- In a crisis: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Kidneys, bladder or urine, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for bladder infections, kidney stones, blood in the urine, bladder pain, bladder leaks, the prostate, kidney disease and bedwetting, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Kidney infection (pyelonephritis): the signs, sepsis, and the treatment: a kidney infection (pyelonephritis): the signs at each age, sepsis and when it is 911, who is more likely to get one, the tests, the antibiotics, and preventing the next one.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 18, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Urinary Retention (last reviewed December 2019) and its Spanish page Retención urinaria, which says the same things. That page is not new, and your team may know of newer advice. The numbers (about 1 in 10 men over 70 and almost one in three men in their 80s over five years; about 3 in 100,000 women a year; age 50) are NIDDK’s. Ours: the emergency room now if you suddenly cannot pee at all, and 911 if you cannot get there safely and quickly; telling your nurse or your team after surgery; never stopping or changing a medicine on your own; asking the pharmacist before a cold, allergy or pain medicine; the catheter questions; the after-hours number on your card; 988; and the order of the steps. What we left out: doses, the brand names of two procedures, the reference, the clinical-trials section, and NIDDK’s outside links. This page saves nothing and loads no trackers.