What is urinary splaying?

Does your urine splatter all over the place rather than hit the water in one steady stream? That's urinary splaying, says OBGYN Lauren Streicher, MD. Find out what you can do to solve the problem.

Transcript

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The easy way to know if your labia is the culprit is simply take your fingers, separate your labia, and if your stream is straight, that's what's causing it.

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Urinary splaying is when a woman urinates and instead of the urine coming out in a straight stream, it just splatters everywhere.

00:27

And this is another problem that's more common than you think. Generally, it's from something that's not serious.

00:34

It can be even a woman who has extra-long labia, which is perfectly normal. But as the urine comes out, it can hit the labia and spray

00:41

everyplace. The easy way to know if your labia is the culprit is simply take your fingers, separate your labia,

00:47

and if your stream is straight, that's what's causing it. If your stream is still splaying, it's probably best to check it out

00:54

with your doctor to make sure there's not something else obstructing your urine. If your labia are the problem, the quick, easy way

01:00

to solve the problem is to simply separate your labia using your fingers. Another trick that works for some women is to sit on the toilet backwards.

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What this does is it separates the labia and redirects the stream. Some women, though, find that they really

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want a more permanent fix. And then we do a surgical procedure called a labiaplasty. This is an outpatient procedure where

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we trim the labia so that they're no longer getting in the way. [AUDIO LOGO]