A First-Timer’s Experience!

Kay is an aspiring outdoor enthusiast with (in her words) very little experience! She used a pee funnel in the wild for the very first time two days prior to when this interview took place. Here’s her take!

When did you first hear about stand-to-pee devices?

Many years ago! I was researching reusable menstrual products, like over a decade ago.

What were your thoughts? Were you interested? Were you  like “meh”?

My first thought was, “I like the idea; I do not know how it works; I cannot make the physics of the shape of the device make sense with my understanding of my anatomy.” And my next thought was, “I love the idea that these fit in pockets, but the size of pockets in girl pants fit, like, a quarter. I do not think this will actually fit in a pocket.” [Laughs]

So when did you first try one, and how did it go for you?

I first tried one back during the pandemic, when I picked one up as an emergency supply because there was a lot of concern about bathrooms being closed. I tried it out at home and then NEVER ended up using it. Just had it as a backup, never needed to use it… till now.

So two days ago you used it for the first time. Why now?

Well, I went on my first ten-mile hike. And it was awesome and beautiful and I brought [the pStyle] with me, just in case. There was construction work happening on some of the trails, so there were more bathrooms on this trail, but booooooooy was it a really long time between them and I did not know when I was going to find the next one. And I suddenly thought, I think this might be the time to try using the device!

Also, I had someone with me who has a ton of experience hiking and is very calm with nature peeing, so I had a literal other human to stand guard while I scurried off to find a place to pee. That was honestly really nice, knowing there was a second person to run interference in case frisky hiking people followed me, because there were a lot of people around.

That’s one of the advantages of the stand-to-pee thing—there’s less of you exposed.

Yes! Although—[laughs] I was wearing a one-piece jumpsuit! So there was actually a little more exposure of me than might have been ideal.

I feel like my first-time-use scenario was a little hardcore. I was in a jumpsuit, and I was on a steep hill with spiky thimble-berry brambles all around me, and there were a LOT of people on the trail.

That is a baptism by fire.

It gave me great confidence for the future honestly. And in terms of my hiking companion, I was not concerned about judgment in case of mishap, and I think that added to my confidence.

But it allowed me to be hydrated on a ten mile hike, which is a really good thing!

Because I was on such a steep hill, I appreciated that I was able to hold the device at a precise angle. It gave me a sense of extra security given that I was standing with my hips canted. I think I would have felt less secure with a softer and squishier device. I was in an awkward position, but everything worked just fine. And I nervous that I was going to mess it up, so I was gripping it really hard, which with a softer device would have gotten me in trouble I think.

It was great to stay hydrated. And it removed mental load! The mental load is bathroom math. Calculating distance and time to bathrooms. It was nice to not have to have that take up as much of my brain. I could more focus on the hike itself.

I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but one theme that comes up when I talk to other women is that they’ll say, “Oh I did this thing, and I just didn’t drink water.”

Oh yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I’m a city girl. Life in the city is a constant state of slightly dehydrating yourself if you’re gonna be out and about all day. Because there are so few places you can find with bathrooms! And even if you do find bathrooms, good luck finding them at the right time, and not occupied by the other people who are also desperately trying to find the only bathrooms available in the city. [Perhaps relevant: the pStyle blog’s guide to legal public urination.]

So how was it for you in nature? When you went on hikes before, were you squatting, or just not peeing?

I was just not peeing! [Laughs] I was a little dehydrated. But also I have not been a long nature hiker. I have been on relatively short hikes, slightly dehydrating myself.

One thing that comes up—and I cover this on my Critiques page—is that people will say, “Just squat. Just squat, it’s fine.” And that’s really cool if you’re into that, but there are lot of women who are not comfortable doing that.

Hundred percent. I feel like if I absolutely had to squat I could, but honestly, I do not think I would enjoy that. For a couple of reasons. One, it’s a lot of muscular control, right? To be able to hold yourself in the low squat thing. But also, if you are carrying anything else with you, there is then the Tetris of  thinking “Do I set my stuff on the ground here, do I squat with a backpack on, or a purse on?”

And if you squat, and you are lowering your garments, the garments are now on the ground, in a pants or shorts situation. And I don’t particularly want my pants to be covered in dirt.

As it was with the jumpsuit situation, I had to do the lowering thing, which was very silly, but it did allow me to get a solid grip of fabric between my knees, so I didn’t have to do the full lowering. I really liked knowing the that I was not lowering my garments into spiky brambles, which I would then have to put back upon my body.

I think the clothing situation is the biggest hindrance to squatting.

And that’s if you’re able-bodied.

That’s if you’re able-bodied. I feel confident in my own body holding a squat for a little bit of time.  But on my hike, I was hydrated. I needed to pee a lot! [Laughs] It was an impressive quantity of pee frankly.

If I were in a squat situation, I’d be so much more worried about a puddle of pee next to my

shoes, or backsplash on the shoes. Because keeping my legs wide enough apart to avoid that—it’s not just that you’re squatting, you’re squatting with your legs more widely spaced then in a simple squat--and that is more muscularly strenuous, and a bit trickier for balance. So if you only needed to pee a tiny bit, sure, squatting would be fine, but I think that would make ME nervous about peeing on my shoes. Or needing to scoot my feet farther apart mid-stream in an awkward, uncomfortable fashion. I liked the ability to direct the stream farther away from my feet. I did NOT want to have to clean pee off my hiking shoes.

But I think if you’re squatting to pee in nature, you DO really have to pee! You’re not squatting out there because you have to pee a little.

I have actually tried the squat-to-pee technique, at home in a bathtub, just to see, “If I need to do this, can I do this?” I did not like it. That’s the thing where you’re like, “Oh, foot position. Angles. Holding your body in this position for a long period of time.” Non-optimal. And the clothing side of things! Dealing with getting all the clothing out of the way. Complicated.

One thing that comes up with stand-to-pee devices is wiping. There’s basically two camps. There’s the people who are like, “I just wipe with my pee funnel, and it is fine,” and the people who are like, “I gotta have my Kula.” Or “I pack out toilet paper.” Do you have a preference?

Having done this exactly once, I opted with using the funnel itself to wipe. And it was… fine, but kind of inadequate. I think a Kula or a tissue would work. I didn’t have a case for my pStyle; I just had a Ziplock, so it would have been really easy to do a disposable tissue right in the bag and zip it up. [There are many case options! Check out pCases, Melgarita’s holster, and the Kula Pocket.]

Was it fun to pee standing up?

Actually, yes! Which I did not expect. I did not expect that at all. Because when I had tried it out at home, it was NOT fun, it was a “this is practicing for an emergency” thing. But there was a sense of triumph, of, “Haha, this is working!” It was genuinely kind of amusing.

Because you’re socialized as a girl that peeing is just—well, for one thing, you don’t do it outside, and for another, there’s not a lot you can do that’s amusing about it, you just kind of pee! [Laughs] There was something entertaining about being able to direct the stream. That was kind of funny. And it made me think of rain gutters. I am become human rain gutter! I was entertained by that image.

You’re a cis woman. What was this like for you as a gender experience? Did it shift your paradigm? Or was it just kind of fine?

I was curious, but it didn’t give me gender feels one way or the other about it. As I said, I just felt like a rain gutter. The pStyle stayed in my mind as an entertaining device and object, and it did not impact my sense of gender, positively, negatively, or at all.

Who would you recommend this device to? Who should give it a try?

The specific one I used was the pStyle, so I cannot speak to the other shapes. But I’d suggest it to anyone who feels comfortable with a device you quite firmly press against yourself to use. Anyone can use it, if they’re okay with that from a sensory perspective.

What would you say are the barriers to getting this type of device socially accepted, and what would normalize stand-to-pee use?

In terms of the barriers that are already on many women, in terms of where or how you pee,  there are things that we accept as normal, as part of our peeing process. One of those things is that if you can only pee in a bathroom, you are used to having more of your things with you. And if you’re going into a closed space to pee, you’re used to having a place to put your stuff, a place to wash your hands, a place to bring your kids with you… and all of those are not necessarily part of peeing, but they become part of the package or peeing as a lady.

The use of a pStyle, or any pee funnel, is for convenience, but it doesn’t necessarily include any of that. So you have to think. Think about finding a private location, where you’re gonna set your stuff, whether you’re bringing your kid, where and if you’re gonna wash your hands, et cetera. If you’ve only used bathrooms, you’re not used to having those extra steps of thought.

If peeing is decoupled from bathroom experience, it can be freeing, but if you haven’t thought about those other logistical steps, there can be anxiety. To have it be more accepted, you’d have to deal with that anxiety.

In terms of stigma with the device itself, it’s hard for me to understand why that would even be troubling to some people, so I can’t speak to that mindset. But just knowing people who have used them successfully and had positive experiences and can answer questions is probably the best way to alleviate anxiety and thus make it seem like a more viable option for people.

Honestly, I wish I’d always had access to a pStyle, and I wish I learned how to use it in the Girl Scouts! I was briefly in the Girl Scouts. Why did we not learn how to use these!? This seems like something if you learned to use it young, it would just be part of going outside.

Thanks Kay! You can get a pStyle here. Do you have a stand-to-pee experience you want to share? Share Your Story!