What are the symptoms of urinary retention?
Acute urinary retention causes great discomfort, and even pain. You feel an urgent need to urinate but you simply can’t. The lower belly is bloated. Chronic urinary retention, by comparison, causes mild but constant discomfort. You have difficulty starting a stream of urine. Once started, the flow is weak. You may need to go frequently, and once you finish, you still feel the need to urinate. You may dribble between trips to the toilet because your bladder is constantly full, a condition called overflow incontinence. How is urinary retention diagnosed? Your doctor will order a number of tests to diagnose your condition. History of complaints and physical examination A physician will suspect urinary retention by your symptoms and will attempt to confirm the diagnosis with a physical examination of the lower abdomen. The physician may be able to feel the distended bladder by lightly tapping on your lower belly. Tapping or striking for diagnostic purposes is called percussing. Urine sampl
