What is “key in lock” syndrome?

This is a name often given for a urinary urgency/frequency urinary symptoms. Another name is urge incontinence. This is what happens when you feel the urge to urinate, arrive home, and just as you’re putting the key in the lock, you get an intense urge and you begin to leak or feel like you’re about to leak.

This happens because of a tightness of the detrusor muscle which is on the outside of the bladder. Although it can seem counter-intuitive, the best thing to do is techniques to relax the detrusor muscle such as slow low breathing and relaxation of your pelvic floor. If your pelvic muscles are already tight and shortened, and you contract them more, they may fatigue, and can lead to more urgency frequency difficulty. In physical therapy, we use biofeedback and manual palpation to help you learn to release the pelvic floor muscles and find a breath technique that is helpful.