Why do I have to pee so often?

Frequent urination – more than 8 times in 24 hours or more often than every 2 hours – is medically referred to as pollakiuria. It can have several causes.

1. You are consuming too much water

It sounds logical: too much water makes you have to pee more often. Adults need an average of 2.8 liters of fluid every day. About 300 ml of this comes from the body itself and is released during all kinds of body processes. Furthermore, 1 liter of moisture comes from our diet. We have to get that last 1.5 liters in, for example by drinking water. If you teach yourself to drink a lot, your body will adapt to it. The urine is less concentrated and you urinate more. That in itself is not so bad, but it is a bit inconvenient. If you want to go to the toilet less often, you will have to drink less. The golden rule here is that your urine should be the color of lemonade.

It can also be harmful if you drink a lot of water in a short time, for example two liters in half an hour. Your blood gets thinned quickly and the body can’t handle that. The concentration of salts in the blood decreases and you have an excess of water in the body. This is called acute hyponatremia, also known as water intoxication.

2. You have weak pelvic floor muscles

The bottom of your pelvis consists of connective tissue and muscles, the pelvic floor. This pelvic floor holds your bladder, uterus and the last part of the intestine in place. There are openings for the urethra, the vagina and the end of the large intestine. The pelvic floor muscles are always slightly tense and thus close off the urethra and the intestine so that you hold urine and stool. Your pelvic floor muscles can weaken and stretch due to pregnancy, childbirth, prolonged coughing, menopause and aging. In that case, your urine may ‘leak’ and feel a lot of urgency.

3. You have a bladder infection

Cystitis is a common cause of frequent urination. The bacteria that cause the inflammation can enter the urinary tract in two ways. Via the circulatory system and, which is much more common, from the outside via the urethra. In addition to having to go to the toilet often, a burning sensation while urinating, only passing a few drops of urine and cloudy urine are symptoms. A bladder infection can go away on its own by drinking a lot of water (which makes you have to urinate even more often, that is). Complications with a bladder infection in the form of kidney infection occur. Therefore, always go to the doctor if a bladder infection does not clear up within a week. The doctor will likely prescribe antibiotics. If a man has a urinary tract infection, antibiotics are always necessary.

4. You have diabetes mellitus

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes raise your blood sugar levels. Your kidneys try to do their job and filter this out, but they can’t always keep up, so the sugar ends up in your urine. This draws water from your body, causing you to urinate more. Frequent urination is therefore one of the first signs of diabetes. Other early symptoms: The urine smells sweet and you feel very thirsty. Does your body give these signals? Then go to the doctor.

5. You have diabetes insipidus

Diabetes insipidus – also called water diabetes or thirst sickness – is a very rare disease, which can develop at any age and in which the kidneys produce more urine. This is because there is not enough antidiuretic hormone (ADH) in the body. ADH, also called vasopressin, causes the kidneys to retain water. In diabetes insipidus, the kidneys allow water to pass through all the time. As a result, people have to urinate a lot (even up to 15 liters per day more than usual) and can become dehydrated. Other symptoms of diabetes insipidus are thirst and drinking a lot (sometimes more than 6 liters a day). The disease can be congenital, but it can also develop later in life. For example, due to a tumor or brain surgery or as a characteristic of another disease or syndrome. It occurs at any age. If you experience the symptoms mentioned, going to the doctor is the only right one. There are various medicines and treatment methods for it.

6. You are taking diuretics

Some people retain too much fluid, which puts higher pressure on the blood vessels. Diuretics (water tablets) remove excess fluid. They do this by stimulating the production of urine in the kidneys. Doctors prescribe diuretics for, among other things, high blood pressure, heart failure and diabetes.

7. You Have Bladder Pain Syndrome

Bladder pain syndrome – also called interstitial cystitis (IC) – is a rare and painful form of chronic bladder infection that is not caused by a bacterial infection. It mainly occurs in women. In interstitial cystitis, the wall of the bladder is irritated, making it less easy to stretch and reducing the capacity of the urinary bladder. This causes the painful ‘full bladder feeling’. The bladder pain syndrome often starts as a bladder infection with pain in the lower abdomen or groin, constant urgency and frequent urination. A course of antibiotics appears to be of little or no help. Medicines and bladder irrigations can relieve the symptoms somewhat. Changing your lifestyle can also help. Good guidance from your GP and a urologist is very important in this regard. The condition often becomes ‘extinguished’ after a number (three to ten) years. You get less pain and need to urinate less often. However, sometimes the situation becomes untenable. Doctors can then decide, in consultation with you, that the bladder must be surgically removed. In such a case you will have a urostomy.

8. You have kidney stones

Kidney stones (nephrolithiasis) are made up of salts and minerals that your kidneys cannot dissolve properly. These clump together to form crystals. Often these are small and you pee them out unnoticed. But if they get bigger, they can cause symptoms. In general, men are more likely to have kidney stones than women. Young people under the age of twenty are rarely confronted with it. In addition to frequent urination, painful urination, cloudy urine, blood in the urine, nausea and vomiting, and pain in your side or lower back are symptoms of kidney stones. If you think you may have kidney stones, always see your doctor. You can refer this to a urologist.

9. You are pregnant

When you’re pregnant, the baby in your belly presses on your bladder, making you have to go to the toilet more often. But even before that, you probably had to pee more often. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy that causes acne. So nothing to do. Do see a doctor if it hurts to urinate or if there is blood in your urine.

10. You’ve had a stroke

Brain damage after a stroke can damage the nerves of the brain, which can lead to reduced control over the bladder and bowels or cause control to disappear completely. This may make you need to urinate more often, but also urinary incontinence, nighttime urination (nocturia), cystitis and bladder spasms.

11. You suffer from a vaginal yeast infection

When your vaginal flora is disturbed, certain fungi can take over: a vaginal yeast infection. Most vaginal yeast infections are caused by the fungus Candida albicans. A vaginal fungus is therefore also called a candida infection. In addition to frequent urination and pain when urinating, you may experience itching in the vagina and sometimes on the labia, lots of white vaginal discharge, which may be friable, and the lining of your vagina may be red, sore and swollen. There are several medications for vaginal yeast infections. You can buy some of these without a doctor’s prescription at your pharmacy or drugstore. Are over-the-counter medicines insufficient? Then your doctor can prescribe other medicines.

12. You drink too much alcohol or coffee

Caffeine and alcohol irritate your bladder a bit. They cause more waste in your urine that your bladder wants to discharge. In addition, they ensure that you produce more vasopressin. This hormone normally signals your kidneys to retain water, rather than sending it directly to your bladder. By the way, you have to drink a lot more from coffee than from alcohol or to get the same effect.

13. You are in menopause

When you are in the menopause, your body makes less estrogen. This results in more frequent urination. Incidentally, many women also suffer from recurrent bladder infections due to the lower estrogen level. The doctor can prescribe hormone therapy and discuss possible lifestyle changes with you.

14. You have a tumor

If a tumor – benign or malignant – takes up space in or around your bladder, it can cause urination problems, such as having to urinate often. If there is blood in your urine or if you feel a strange lump in your abdomen, see your doctor.

15. You have an enlarged prostate

The prostate is a small organ that only men have. It is located at the bottom of the bladder and lies around the beginning of the urethra. The prostate is already present at birth, but is still very small. During puberty, the gland grows to adult size under the influence of the male sex hormone testosterone. From the age of 25, the prostate begins to grow slowly again, which does not stop. When this causes complaints, it is often a problem with urination. Because the prostate surrounds the urethra, it slowly but surely pushes the urethra shut. As a result, the complaints often start with a weakening of the urine stream. It takes some time for the pee to come out. And it takes longer for you to pass urine, because the urine stream is thinner or drops. The enlarged prostate can also irritate the bladder, so that some men have the urge to urinate more frequently and have to get out of bed at night. If you recognize these symptoms, visit your doctor. They can prescribe medication and, for example, rule out prostate cancer.

16. You Suffer From Constipation

When you have not had a bowel movement for some time, your full bowel presses against your bladder. This gives the feeling that you have to urinate more often – and very necessary. In addition, constipation can cause your pelvic floor muscles to relax, causing you to lose some bladder control.

17. You have sleep apnea

During your deep sleep, vasopressin is produced so that your kidneys retain water until you wake up. Because with sleep apnea you hardly achieve that deep sleep, this hormone is not produced or less and your kidneys will retain less water. In addition, your blood gets less oxygen, which causes your kidneys to release the water. The result: you have to urinate more often.