Rich New Yorkers 'getting bladder surgery' so they don't need to pee on drive to Hamptons

There's nothing more frustrating a passenger who continuously needs to stop in order to use the bathroom during a long car ride. And if there's one thing New Yorkers who flock to the Hamptons for the weekend know, it's the car ride can be long.

But some wealthy New Yorkers have apparently cracked the code to avoid frequent bathroom breaks on the trip- bladder surgery.

According to Insider, New York City urologist Dr. David Shusterman said people are discovering procedures as a way to combat the need to pee on long car rides.

"A lot of people have problems with this issue. They come out to the Hamptons and have to stop four or five times on the way, but can't find a restroom," Dr. Shusterman told Insider.

An overactive bladder can be caused by an enlarged prostate in men which can fixed with an hour-long procedure known as a prostatic artery embolization (PAE) which reduces the size of prostate in men.

Some people can also opt for "bladder botox" in which botox is injected into the bladder to treat an overactive bladder.

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Dr. Shusterman told Insider he's seen a 20 percent increase in people seeking out PAE or bladder botox in May before the summer begins.

Although having to pee during a long road trip is not necessarily a sign of an underlying issue, a person experiencing an overactive bladder can feel the symptoms exasperated during a long car ride.

"Certainly I would not recommend PAE on a patient whose symptoms are not affecting their life significantly or to those who have not tried oral medications," Dr. Vikram Rajpurohit, an interventional radiologist at NYU told Insider. "But when hearing about their interrupted drives to the Hamptons, I find that issue is usually only the tip of the iceberg."

Trips to the Hamptons can take anywhere from two to six hours depending on the density of traffic. On social media people often complain about the uncomfortable long car ride.

Some travelers will resort to holding their pee in to avoid conflict with other passengers or the driver but many doctors say this is not good to do.

“If you are not urinating and you're retaining urine, it can cause metabolic abnormalities and electrolyte issues, which can lead to long term renal (kidney) failure,” Dr. Nazia Bandukwala says on Piedmont.org.

“Aside from that, if you retain urine and you don't empty your bladder well or if you don't empty frequently enough, you can have what we call urinary stasis and develop a urinary tract infection (UTI). Your bladder, a muscle, may even start to atrophy or weaken, leading to urinary incontinence, or poor bladder emptying."

But for people just looking for general tips to avoid the frequent bathroom breaks, Dr. Shusterman says avoid alcohol and drink plain water without over-hydrating.

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