Being rich now means never having to pee.
Wealthy New Yorkers headed to the tony Hamptons are getting a surgical procedure that allows them to endure bumper-to-bumper traffic without having to pee, according to Insider.com. One doctor says he is doing up to a dozen of the operations per week as summer beach season moves into full swing.
“A lot of people have problems with this issue,” Dr. David Shusterman, a New York City urologist who’s been advertising the procedures with the tagline “Race to the Hamptons, not to the bathroom,” told the outlet. “They come out to the Hamptons and have to stop four or five times on the way, but can’t find a restroom.”
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For men, the procedure is officially known as prostate artery embolization. For women, it is dubbed “bladder botox.”
Shusterman told Insider he’s seen demand for the operation skyrocket this spring as the rich flock to their multi-million-dollar summer homes on the tip of Long Island.
“I don’t see them until around May,” he said. “Then all of a sudden, May comes and they care more. When they’re in a car with a bunch of people, they’re embarrassed because they have to go to the bathroom every hour.”
The men’s procedure, which shrinks the prostate by restricting blood flow to it, takes about an hour and costs $20,000. For women, the answer to annoying pee breaks involves having a small scope inserted through the urethra to inject botox. It stays effective for six months, Shusterman said, and costs a tenth of what the male solution runs.
A 60-year-old man who got the procedure done weeks ago told Insider COVID made traffic to the glamorous getaway worse than ever.
“With the pandemic, most of New York just moved out to their Hamptons house,” he said. “They relocated and it’s caused a lot of traffic.”
Heading east to his summer home was four hours of agony with no rest stops prior to the operation, he said. But “there’s no dread now,” he said. “I’m like a kid.”
There’s an easier and less weird way to handle long trips to the beach, Shusterman acknowledged. Avoid booze and don’t drink too much water.
“Alcohol is really bad — it has a direct irritation effect on the bladder,” he said. “Drink plain water. Hydrate, but don’t overhydrate. You don’t want to be stuck on the road with nowhere to go.”