How Long Is It Okay to Hold It? Your body's physical capacity to keep in urine is based on a few things: Most of the time women can hold urine for three to six hours, but this will vary, says Brucker. It really depends on the amount of urine that someone makes, which is determined by hydration status and fluid intake, and also functional bladder capacity, which is a combination of the actual size of the bladder and bladder sensitivity.