When your bladder holds your trauma: emotion, the nervous system, and bladder health

When your bladder holds your trauma: emotion, the nervous system, and bladder healthYou know your body is telling you something. But when every test comes back clear, it becomes very hard to trust what you're feeling or to understand why it won't get better.In this episode, I'm joined by Dr Lindsey McKernan, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Urology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and pioneer of uro-psychology, and Saoirse Nash, women's health coach and Director of Live UTI Free. Together we explore something that doesn't get nearly enough airtime: what happens to the bladder and pelvis when the nervous system has been under sustained stress, or when trauma has never fully been processed.Saoirse shares her own journey from recurring acute UTIs in her teens to chronic symptoms that no one could explain, including the link she made between her mother’s passing and the way her body responded. Lindsey brings the science: why childhood adversity and trauma change the way the nervous system processes pain, how the stress response directly affects bladder function, and what uro-psychology, the field she has spent her career building, offers to people who haven't found answers in standard care.This conversation covers:Why emotional history can show up as physical symptoms in the bladder and pelvis and what that actually means for treatmentWhat PTSD looks like in a urology clinic, and why it's more common than most clinicians realiseHow sustained stress keeps the nervous system in a state of threat and what that does to pelvic muscles and pain processingThe research behind psychological interventions for interstitial cystitis, and why outcomes can improve even after 14 years of chronic painWhat it means to move from being at war with your body to working with itThis episode will resonate deeply with anyone who has long suspected that it is their bladder or pelvis holding the score. It is also essential listening for clinicians looking for a more integrated framework for supporting people with bladder and pelvic pain.This podcast is supported by Convatec Continence Care and their Me+ programme, which supports people using intermittent catheters with both practical guidance and emotional wellbeing resources. Find out more at www.howwereallyfeel.com/in-partnership-with-convatec