In this short film, you will learn about how your urinary system works, the different parts of your body that are involved, and the different functions they each have. The urinary system filters and excretes waste, and it's made up of two parts. The upper urinary system includes the kidneys and ureters. The kidneys filter your blood of excess fluid and impurities, which then become urine.

The ureters are tubes that transport urine from the kidneys to the bladder. There is a valve within the ureters that prevents urine back flowing to the kidneys. The backflow of urine could cause damage to the kidneys. The lower urinary system includes the bladder, the urethra and the sphincter muscles.

The adult male urethra is somewhere between 18 to 20 centimeters long. It's the tube between the bladder and the opening of the urethra. Right below the bladder, where the urethra starts is an internal sphincter muscle and the prostate gland. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ made up of several muscle layers.

The bladders main function is to store and eliminate urine. The bladder receives signals as it fills with urine to indicate the need to urinate. When the bladder is about halfway full, around 250 milliliters, you get the first sensation you need to urinate. As the bladder continues to fill, the sensation becomes stronger and the urgency to urinate increases.

The bladder muscles relax as your bladder fills, but contract when you urinate. The sphincter muscle controls the flow of urine out of the bladder, which squeezes the urethra shut as the bladder fills and relaxes. As the bladder is emptied. To summarize, the urinary system is made up of two parts, which includes the upper and lower system, and both play an important role in the production and excretion of urine from the body.