A video claiming a common habit can be particularly unhealthy for women has gone viral.

Urinating in the shower has long prompted debate online, with shower-pee proponents claiming the act can actually help conserve water. In 2021, theMichigan Daily found substituting a toilet flush for a minimally longer shower can save anywhere between 1.5 and 23 litres of water – in the US, at least.

One survey in 2015 also found 61% of Americans admitted to tinkling in the shower, while 41% said they even peed in swimming pools.

Now, Dr Emma Qureshey, an obstetrician gynaecologist in Houston, Texas, has taken to TikTokto share how women can maintain their gynaecological health – including resisting the urge to urinate in the shower.

“The first thing I would never do is pee in the shower, or more importantly, pee standing up,” Qureshey said in the clip last week, which has amassed more than 764,000 views at the time of writing.

“It is, one, not very hygienic, but more important than that, it will destroy your pelvic floor, and also it might create mental associations where you hear water running and all of a sudden you need to run to the bathroom – not interested in that.”

However, the sound of running water triggering a need to urinate isn’t just a phenomenon in women.

The brain-bladder connection, referred to as the brain-bladder axis, not only facilitates the act of peeing, but is also responsible for telling us we need to go in the first place. In 2015, researchers demonstrated that males with urinary difficulties found it easier to initiate peeing when listening to the sound of running water on a smartphone.