Research shows that sitting down could make it easier for the bladder to empty faster and more completely.
In Germany, they call them “sitzpinklers” – a term designed to poke fun at their masculinity – but some doctors believe that men should not be quite so quick to deride the possible benefits of sitting down to pee.
Recent research from YouGov has illustrated that most males around the world overwhelmingly opt to stand whilst relieving themselves. Thirty-three per cent of British men are adamant that they would never consider sitting, with just 24 per cent saying that they often choose to do so. When questioned, men from nations like Mexico and Poland made it particularly clear that they would not be willing to sit.
According to Gerald Collins, a consultant urological surgeon at the Alexandra Hospital, which is part of Circle Health Group, male attitudes towards this have likely evolved as a matter of convenience and circumstance. “The bottom line is, if you’re on a golf course, and you need to nip behind a tree, you can get away with doing that,” he says. “Whereas if you squat and drop your pants, it could be a much more awkward scenario.”
But in certain countries male willingness to contemplate sitting down has steadily become more, dare we say it, progressive. In 2020, a poll found that 70 per cent of Japanese men sit down to pee, up by an encouraging 19 per cent from 2015, when the same poll was taken. Ironically, despite the sitzpinkler slur, Germany actually topped the YouGov survey, followed by Australia and then Sweden. Forty per cent of German males say they sit down every time they go to the toilet, with only 10 per cent insisting that they would never succumb to sitzpinkling.