Has anyone experienced the inability to urinate when constipated?

I did some reading trying to find things that might keep me regular, instead of me waiting and then resorting to my Australian licorice. These oats have really helped.

That's great news. And it may be helping more than your digestion--

I have found when my bowel is full it presses on my bladder sometimes making it difficult to urinate. I know this sounds difficult, but if you stand up and try to pee it might release the tension.

Hate to say it, but so glad someone else has experienced same thing as I have. I will give your method a try, though hopefully, not in the near future if I can help it!

I just saw this other comment in another thread. If no one has checked for it already, I'd guess it may be something your doctors will be looking for, as one of many possibilities:

Yes. Is possible because it happens to me! When I get constipated or when I have a diverticulitis attack, the inflammation in my sigmoid colon prevents me from urinating properly without really pushing hard to get it out. So no, you're not crazy. And yes, it's really a thing. I have to try really hard not to get constipated, so I have a limited food intake and I take a cap full of miralax every night before bed. In the morning I have a normal bowel movement. I've been taking miralax daily for about 3 or 4 years now. Every once in awhile I forget, but my body remembers and if I had drunk enough water that day I'll have a bowel movement on my own so I don't think that your body becomes dependent on it. But even if it does, who cares because obviously we need it since we can't poop regularly!

Yes, as a matter of fact I just experienced this very issue! I am not a doctor, but I know what I just went through and it was very emotional and scary. After nearly 1 week with no bowel movement I woke up 2 days ago and could no longer urinate. I started to panic. Finally, just this morning I had a bowel movement that relieved everything. I had what I am calling an obstruction of solid waste in the intestines. When it came out, the obstruction, I could urinate again What a relief! My diagnosis, not a doctor, too much sitting. I have been working for weeks working 12+ hour per days on computer. I set up a standing work station yesterday. Also, urinating has never been easy for me, so when things got squeezed, it shut down both.

This discussion began 10 months ago when my difficulty urinating had not yet taken hold, but it has in recent months and for reasons that are not addressed in the postings thus far. In my case, urine is blocked or reduced by pressure on my urethra as it passes through my prostate gland. The pressure is NOT applied on my bladder -- as others above speculate -- but by fecal matter clustering in my rectum at the very bottom of my digestive tract. The expanding rectum is located below the bladder where the prostate gland surrounds the urethra as it passes out of the bladder and through the prostate. As others have noted, their medical teams have not listed this as a cause of urinary blockage, and that's been my experience as well with a half-dozen physicians and specialists on my medical team. Fortunately, three successive reports by radiologists on CT Scans have suggested that my team look at the interaction of prostate and rectum in their clinical diagnoses. Moreover, my urologist for the last three years called off another scheduled cystocopy (to examine my prostate again) when he learned that urine flowed more freely after defecation than before. Martin