Can you live without your bladder?

Yes, you can live without your bladder. If a healthcare provider removes your bladder, you’ll need a urostomy or neobladder surgery.

It’s normal to worry about how bladder removal surgery may affect your quality of life, especially as you adjust to a potentially new way for pee to leave your body. But with some extra planning, many people can still enjoy their usual activities, including physical activity and travel.

If a urologist removes your bladder, they’ll perform reconstructive bladder surgery to create a new way for your body to store and remove pee. The different methods include:

It depends on what type of reconstructive surgery you have after bladder removal surgery. You may have to use a catheter to drain pee out of your body through a stoma. If you have a neobladder, pee comes out of your body the same way that it would with your original, healthy bladder.