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  • It’s one of those questions that a lot of you have asked: why do I shiver when I pee?

  • If you haven’t experienced this, youre probably wondering if it’s even a real thing,

  • or if it’s just some big practical joke online.

  • I don’t blame you, because urinating and shivering don’t seem that closely related.

  • Well, it turns out that shivering after you pee is something a lot of people seem to

  • experience, and it seems to affect males more than females.

  • Butnobody really knows why it happens.

  • There actually hasn’t been any peer-reviewed research on it.

  • Now, were not the first ones on the internet to try to answer this question.

  • If you look around, youll find plenty of articles giving a few possible explanations.

  • Here’s the thing, though: lots of those articles are wrong.

  • They seem to be getting their information from a letter-response article written in

  • 1994, which /itself/ was based on a discussion about pee shivers a bunch of people were having

  • in a forumnot exactly a legitimate scientific source.

  • So you mightve heard people say that these shivers happen because your body temperature

  • suddenly lowers after you lose all that warm urine.

  • But that idea just comes from the discussion forum, and it doesn’t really make sense

  • anywayyou don’t shiver when you vomit, even though that’s also a case where youre

  • losing a lot of warm fluid.

  • Even the supposedly-official scientific name for the phenomenon, post-micturition convulsion

  • syndrome, was made up by someone in that forum.

  • So, remember to check the sources before you believe things online.

  • When journalists have asked excretory system experts about this, they kind of have an explanation:

  • the shivers might have to do with an interaction between two different parts of your nervous

  • system.

  • When you choose to start urinating, your body also lowers your blood pressure.

  • That’s the parasympathetic nervous system at workthe part responsible for involuntary

  • processes that are more about resting, like digestion and lowering your heart rate.

  • But peeing also triggers the sympathetic nervous system, which is involved in other involuntary

  • processes like the fight-or-flight response.

  • It’s possible that you get the pee shivers when there’s an especially strong interaction

  • between these two responses.

  • That would explain why this seems to affect males more than femaleswhen you stand

  • up to pee, your blood pressure will be slightly lower than if youre sitting, which could

  • lead to a stronger interaction between the two parts of the nervous system.

  • But again, there’s no research on this, so it’s hard to know for sure.

  • So get on this, scientists!

  • The world wants to know!

  • Thanks to all of you whove asked us this question over the years, and thanks especially

  • to all of our patrons on Patreon who keep these answers coming.

  • If you’d like to submit questions to be answered, or get some videos a few days early,

  • go to patreon.com/scishow.

  • And don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!

It’s one of those questions that a lot of you have asked: why do I shiver when I pee?

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