This post is sponsored by Carefree
Yep. It happened. When I said ‘literally’ I meant it. I was in year 6 at the time and I had been pretty much in control of my bathroom activities for almost a decade, but on this particular day my best friend Lauren made me laugh so hard that I LITERALLY WET MY PANTS.
We’d been chasing each other around playing a game called Shark where you have to stay on the play equipment because the tanbark was the ‘water’. If you fell in the water you drowned. She scored a point and did a victory dance, falling straight off the equipment and ‘drowned’ in the tanbark. It wasn’t even really that funny but for some reason I lost it and laughed so hard that I just wet myself right on the playground. It wasn’t even a little bit, it was a full on Godzilla sized whizz and it just did not stop. It was both humiliating and fascinating.
I ran straight to the bathroom and of course everyone followed me so I ‘accidentally’ spilled water down the front of my uniform and I was like ‘Oh no! I spilled water everywhere! So clumsy! So silly! Ha ha ha… sure does look like I wet myself but I didn’t… it’s water. Seriously though. It’s water.’ It was a strange experience and I’ve been terrified of it happening again ever since.
I had some toilet issues as a kid and I was a bit of a nightmare to toilet train. I was a very heavy sleeper and bed wetting was an unpleasant little problem for me right up until I was about 12. It wasn’t a regular occurrence by any means, I could still go to sleepovers and be totally fine but about once or twice a year, for no reason at all, I’d wet the bed. I wasn’t emotionally traumatised by this but it’s definitely affected my adult life.
Occasional bed wetting, coupled with the unfortunate playground incident, has turned me into what I call a ‘chronic pee-er’. I go to the toilet a lot. Probably about ten times a day and at least twice (sometimes three times) before I go to bed at night. I do drink a lot of water and I certainly wouldn’t say that I have any serious bladder control issues but I do like to be near a toilet at all times and I get a bit panicky if there isn’t one around.
For example I rarely make it through the night without needing to go to the toilet and even if I’ve been once in the night I wake up in the morning BUSTING to go. I also can’t make it through a movie without ducking out for a quick wee. I never leave anywhere without going to the bathroom first. Just In Case Weeing is just part of my leaving the house routine. It’s a minor thing but one that people notice, particularly if I’ve been out drinking with them and I duck to the toilet after almost every glass of wine or beer.
I realised recently that it’s not something I’ve discussed with my girlfriends because it’s ‘a bit weird’. I’m an open book with my girlfriends, hell I’m an open book with anyone but this is not something I ever really talk about. I can talk about sex, periods, relationships, stupid stuff like pash rash and dry humping but that’s because those things are ‘normal’ and they happen to everyone. I don’t feel like my weird peeing issues are an appropriate discussion point but that’s crap because there are so many women, young women that suffer from weak bladder problems and LBL and gosh darn it we need to start talking about it!
LBL or light bladder leakage is really common amongst young women and studies of LBL sufferers show that –
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› Young women who suffer from LBL don’t really want to be buying products that are associated with incontinence.
› Over 40% of women who experience bladder leakage are under the age of 45.
› Lots of young women who have LBL don’t realise they have it – they think it’s normal to have light bladder leakage when they sneeze or jump around.
› Some LBL sufferers practice compromising behaviour such as not drinking water to keep their LBL under control.
› LBL is quite common in female athletes and women who participate in heavy or intense exercise.
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This is precisely why Carefree have released their Plus liners – they absorb more fluid than period liners* but are still thin and discreet so you stay fresh all day without walking around feeling like you have a mattress between your legs. It’s just a bit more comforting to be able to go to the supermarket and buy liners that look like regular liners without the big giant INCONTINENCE PADS written on them. I mean you might as well walk up to the checkout person and say ‘Hi! I sometimes wee in my pants a bit if I sneeze or jiggle around. Good sale on artichokes!’ They also have 12 hour odour control which is awesome for travelling. If I’m on a long haul flight, I always wear a liner for the first half, then remove it and I’ve got fresh undies just waiting underneath for me. Bonza. For a free sample of the Carefree Plus range just click here. It’ll be just like getting those free tampons from Dolly magazine in the 90s.
Do you or have you suffered from LBL? Have you ever literally wet your pants laughing?
This post was co-ordinated by The Remarkables Group
*Compared to Carefree Original Liners