Diagnosis Of Frequent Urination
Most women know their bodies well enough to know when the urge to pee frequently becomes a problem. But after seeking medical attention, there are tests that experienced physicians can conduct to determine the reasons for excessive urination. Doctors typically begin an office visit by asking women with frequent urination issues a series of questions, such as these:
- How long have you been experiencing frequent urination?
- How much in fluids do you typically drink per day?
- What prescription and over-the-counter medications do you take?
- Are you experiencing other symptoms in addition to needing to urinate often?
After getting a better idea of a woman’s symptoms and lifestyle habits, the doctor may take a urine sample to test for possible infections. In some cases, a doctor may also order a cystometry, which measures bladder pressure, to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.
What Causes Frequent Urination In Females
There are many different causes of frequent urination in females, but here we will highlight and describe some of the most common causes. We’ll start with some low-risk causes that are very treatable and work up to more high-risk causes for which frequent urination is a symptom of a serious disease.
An Introduction To Frequent And Urgent Urination
One of the most common symptoms of an enlarged prostate is a frequent need to urinate. Often this symptom occurs very suddenly, leaving you running for the toilet frequently throughout the day. This is often referred to as urinary urgency.
This symptom can manifest in a number of ways: urinating frequently and urgently, and having the feeling that you need to urinate when you dont. This can be an annoying, even debilitating symptom, as it can interrupt daily life and make going out and socialising difficult. It can also interrupt sleep, leaving the sufferer tired and irritable.
It is important to be sure that your symptoms really are the result of an enlarged prostate. Take our enlarged prostate symptom checker, and if you still think this is the cause of your frequent and urgent urination, it is important you see a GP to rule out any other more serious prostate problems.
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How Is Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Treated
Treatment options for benign prostatic hyperplasia may include
- lifestyle changes
- minimally invasive procedures
- surgery
A health care provider treats benign prostatic hyperplasia based on the severity of symptoms, how much the symptoms affect a mans daily life, and a mans preferences.
Men may not need treatment for a mildly enlarged prostate unless their symptoms are bothersome and affecting their quality of life. In these cases, instead of treatment, a urologist may recommend regular checkups. If benign prostatic hyperplasia symptoms become bothersome or present a health risk, a urologist most often recommends treatment.
Symptoms Of Urinary Problems
Urinary symptoms commonly experienced with prostate problems include:
- the need to urinate frequently during the night
- urinating more often during the day
- urinary urgency the urge to urinate can be so strong and sudden that you may not reach the toilet in time
- the urine stream is slow to start
- urine dribbling for some time after finishing urination
- a sensation that the bladder isn’t fully emptied after urination
- lack of force to the urine flow, which makes directing the stream difficult
- the sensation of needing to go again soon after urinating.
Although these symptoms often do not need treatment, see your doctor if they are causing you difficulty, as they can be successfully treated.
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Follow Your Treatment Plan
Standard treatments used to prevent or slow the growth of prostate cancer may also help relieve symptoms such as pain. These include hormonal therapy chemotherapy, which directly attacks the tumor and surgery, according to ACS.
Additionally, there are treatments that can target bone metastases more specifically options include drugs called bisphosphonates, which help strengthen bones and prevent fractures external radiation therapy ablation techniques corticosteroids and pain medications.
Men with advanced prostate cancer should stick closely to their treatment protocol, says Gilligan, because we have abundant evidence that reduce pain.
What Can I Do To Control Frequent Urination
There are several lifestyle changes and non-medicated ways to manage your frequent urination. These can include:
- Avoiding drinking fluids before going to bed.
- Limiting the amount of alcohol and caffeine you drink.
- Doing Kegel exercises to build up strength in your pelvic floor. These muscles support the organs in the pelvis, including your bladder. Kegel exercises are often prescribed to women after childbirth because of the stress having a baby places on the pelvic floor muscles.
- Wearing a protective pad or underwear to avoid leaks. This is a short-term solution that can help you keep living your life while your condition is being treated.
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Frequent Urination Causes And Risk Factors
1. Bladder conditions
One major cause of frequent urination is a condition thats affecting your bladder in some way. This can be an infection or injury of the bladder, or it can be muscle, nerve or tissue changes that are affecting your bladder function. Some specific conditions that involve the bladder and may be causing frequent urination include:
- Bladder stones a buildup of minerals that form in the urinary bladder and occurs more frequently in men.
- Overactive bladder a condition that doesnt allow the bladder to hold urine properly, which results in problems like urine incontinence and leaky urine.
- Interstitial cystitis also called painful bladder syndrome, this is a chronic condition that causes bladder pain and pressure, resulting in frequent urination.
2. Prostate conditions
The prostate is a gland thats located in the male reproductive system, just below the bladder. Frequent urination is one of the warning signs that you may have an issue with your prostate health, such as:
- Enlarged prostate when the prostate becomes enlarged and pushes against the bladder and urinary tract.
- Prostatitis an infectious disease that involves the prostate gland and can cause symptoms like frequent urination, fever, nausea, vomiting, pain during urination and an urgent feed to urinate.
3. Kidney conditions
4. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes
5. Urinary tract infections
6. Sexually transmitted diseases
7. Pregnancy
8. Stroke
9. Certain medications
10. Excess consumption of fluids
What Are Common Prostate Problems What Are The Symptoms And Signs
Here are some examples of non-cancer prostate problems:
Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, means your prostate is enlarged, but is not cancerous. It is very common in older men. An enlarged prostate may make it very difficult to urinate or cause dribbling after you urinate. You may feel the need to urinate a lot, often at night. See your family doctor for an exam. Treatments for BPH include:
- Watchful waiting, also called active surveillance. If your symptoms are not too bad, your doctor may tell you to wait before starting any treatment to see if the problem gets worse. Your doctor will tell you how often you need to return for checkups. You can start treatment later if your symptoms worsen.
- Medications. There are medicines that can help shrink the prostate or help relax muscles near your prostate to ease your symptoms. Talk with your doctor about possible side effects.
- Surgery. If nothing else has worked, your doctor may suggest surgery to help urine flow. There are many types of BPH surgery. Talk with your doctor about the risks. Regular checkups are important after surgery.
- Other treatments. Sometimes radio waves, microwaves, or lasers are used to treat urinary problems caused by BPH. These methods use different kinds of heat to reduce extra prostate tissue.
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About Half Of Men Older Than 50 Have An Enlarged Prostate Here Are Some Of The Basic Facts You Need To Know About This Common Condition
As men age, many experience prostate gland enlargement. This condition is known as benign prostatic hyperplasia .
The prostate gland surrounds the urethra, the hollow tube that carries urine out of the body. When the prostate gets bigger, it can squeeze or partially block the urethra, which leads to problems urinating.
BPH is quite common in older men. In fact, the condition impacts about 50% of men between the ages of 51 and 60. For men 80 and older, the prevalence of BPH is approximately 90%, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Problems After Prostate Cancer Treatment
Many men get urinary problems as a side effect of their treatment. This is because prostate cancer treatment can damage the nerves and muscles that control when you urinate .
If youre starting treatment for prostate cancer, ask your doctor about the possible side effects. Each treatment can cause different urinary problems. Your chances of getting each side effect will depend on the treatment youre having, and on whether or not you had urinary problems before starting treatment.
If youve already had prostate cancer treatment and you have urinary problems, tell your doctor or nurse. They can suggest treatments and lifestyle changes to help manage them.
Depending on the type of problems youre having, ways to manage them can include lifestyle changes, pelvic floor muscle exercises, bladder retraining, medicines or surgery. For practical tips read our How to manage urinary problems guide.
Watch Paul’s story below for one man’s experience of managing urinary problems after prostate cancer treatment.
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Can You Prevent Urinary Frequency
Yes, it can, depending on the underlying problem.
If the cause is diabetes, then you should avoid foods that increase blood sugar levels. You should also monitor your fluid intake, and make sure that youre not drinking too much caffeine and alcohol.
For men with an enlarged prostate, regular exercise helps reduce PSA levels and stress-related inflammation. Whether you run, swim, or do yoga, exercise can help a lot.
Pelvic floor exercises such as Kegel exercises and bladder training are helpful if you have an overactive bladder.
These strengthen pelvic floor muscles, urethra, and bladder control. The aim is to train the bladder to hold urine longer and urinate less often, and you do this gradually over two to three months.
What Is The Prostate Gland
The prostate is a gland about the size of a walnut. It is part of the male reproductive system and wraps around the tube that carries urine out of the bladder. It grows larger as you get older. If your prostate gets too large, it can cause health issues. Having prostate problems does not always mean you have cancer.
Sometimes a doctor may find a problem during a routine checkup or by doing a rectal exam. If you think there is something wrong with your prostate, see your doctor right away.
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How Bothersome Is It
Doctors use the International Prostate Symptom Score to measure how frequent a man’s symptoms are. It’s a seven-item questionnaire about typical BPH symptoms that provides a score from 0 to 35. You can see the questionnaire at health.harvard.edu/IPSS.
Typically, men who score 8 and above are more likely to think their condition needs treatment, but it varies from man to man. “Above a score of 8 there is actually a spectrum of bother,” Dr. Barry says. “Two men can have the same symptom score, and one can tolerate it just fine but the other can’t.”
The IPSS test cuts through the subjectivity with this additional question: “If you were to spend the rest of your life with your urinary condition just the way it is now, how would you feel about that?” If the answer is, “I could live with it,” then watchful waiting might be best for you.
But watchful waiting doesn’t mean “do nothing.” It should include strategies to lessen symptoms or make them easier to cope with. In one recent study, men who attended classes on such self-management techniques lowered their IPSS symptom scores by 6 points within three months. “Six points is a difference most men would perceive,” Dr. Barry says.
What Causes Sharp Pain In Right Kidney Capsule
Kidney infection or pyelonephritis which is common in all age groups, may also lead to this pain. The infection in the right kidney may cause inflammation of the kidney and can lead to stretching of the capsule. Severe injury can result in bleeding within the right kidney, which may cause sharp pain.
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What Is Frequent Urination
Inconvenient and disruptive to your daily life, frequent urination is when you need to urinate many times throughout a 24-hour period. This is a symptom of many different conditions and can have a wide variety of solutions. At some points in your life, like during pregnancy, you may need to pee more frequently. This can be a normal symptom of something like pregnancy and it usually passes after birth. However, frequent urination can be linked to other health issues that arent normal parts of life and dont fade over time. It can be a symptom of more serious conditions like diabetes, overactive bladder syndrome, UTIs or prostate problems. Needing to urinate frequently can even disturb your sleep. That full bladder that keeps waking you up in the middle of an otherwise good nights sleep is a condition called nocturia.
In many cases, your healthcare provider can help relieve this symptom by treating the underlying condition.
What Does Frequent Urination Mean
Frequent urination is a condition where men or women pass urine more often than usual.
Some people who experience this feel a sudden, compelling urge to urinate.
At times, it comes along with bladder discomfort. It may also result from an overactive bladder. For men and women, if you go more than eight times in 24 hours to urinate, then you are experiencing frequent urination.
Frequent urination is not the same as incontinence. That has to do with the involuntary leakage of urine.
Simply put, this occurs when a person urinates when they do not want to. It has something to do with control over the urinary sphincter, which is either absent or impaired.
Frequent urination can be divided into two types. The first type is linked to an increase in the total volume of urine .
The second one involves problems with the storage and emptying of the urine. If frequent urination happens for men or women at night, it is referred to as nocturia.
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How Might An Enlarged Prostate Affect My Life
Having an enlarged prostate affects men in different ways. Some men can manage mild symptoms and dont need treatment. Other men find they need to stay near a toilet. This can make it difficult to work, drive, be outdoors and attend social events. If you need the toilet a lot during the night, this can affect your sleep and make you feel more tired during the day.
Some men with an enlarged prostate find their symptoms improve over time without treatment. But for most, the symptoms will stay the same or slowly start to cause more problems over time unless they have treatment.
It Can Alleviate Painful Ejaculation
Painful ejaculation is rare, but it happens. It can come from infection or inflammation in the epididymis , prostate, seminal vesicles, and/or urethra. It can also signal a blockage in the ejaculatory duct. Massage can reduce prostate inflammation and make ejaculation less painful, says Mills.
Another cause of painful ejaculation can be tight pelvic floor muscles, which can occur when men have an inflammation or infection of the prostate. Again, Gonzalez says doing Kegels can help. Manual manipulation of those muscles during prostate massage can further alleviate ejaculatory pain. This is definitely something you would want a specialist to work on with you, he says.
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Try These Techniques To Relieve Common Urinary Symptoms Without Medication
For frequent urination or urgency in men, these methods really work. And you can always switch to medication later.
If you are a man over age 50, chances are you knowor will soonsomeone taking a medication for an overgrown prostate gland. Better known as benign prostatic hyperplasia , this condition can cause bothersome problems like frequent urination at night, difficulty completely emptying the bladder, and the urgent need to urinate at inconvenient times.
BPH triggers noticeable problems in a third of men in their 60s and nearly half of those in their 80s. Drug therapy relieves symptoms, and for severe problems, surgery may be considered. But for men with milder symptoms that dont interfere much with their daily lives, theres another option: watchful waiting.
In watchful waiting, you and your doctor monitor your symptoms closely and then take action only when you feel it is necessary. In the meantime, simple changes in behavior can help to take the edge off urinary symptoms. This approach also avoids the costs and risks associated with more aggressive treatment.
Watchful waiting is broadly available to men who have lower urinary tract symptoms that have been attributed to BPH, but who are not bothered enough to take on the small but finite risks of treatment, such as drugs or surgery, says Dr. Michael J. Barry, a clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who helped to write national guidelines on how to treat BPH.
What Causes Frequent Urination In Men
Urination is a complex process involving different nerves, organs, and muscles, and many factors may cause frequent urination in men.
Under normal conditions, it can be caused by drinking too much fluid, especially those that contain caffeine or alcohol. It could also be just a habit, as some people usually urinate more often than others. Some drugs like diuretics can also cause it.
However, if frequent urination cannot be explained and if it happens all the time, then it could be a symptom of a serious condition.
It might be caused by anxiety, stroke, diseases of the nervous system, and bladder dysfunction.
Other causes include heart failure, Addisons disease, chronic glomerulonephritis, primary hyperaldosteronism, diabetes mellitus, and diabetes insipidus.
For men, the most common causes are diabetes and an enlarged prostate.
An enlarged prostate is also called benign prostatic hyperplasia . As the prostate gets larger, it puts pressure on the urethra and blocks the normal flow of urine.
Frequent urination happens because the bladder has to contract more to push urine. Over time, it becomes overly sensitive and contracts even if it contains a small amount of urine.
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