Frequent Urination

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What is frequent urination? – This refers to passing urine more than eight times during the day and twice at night. Most adults pass urine about six to eight times during the day and once to twice at night. If the number of times of passing urine exceeds this, then, there may be cause for concern as it may be a symptom of a disease condition. Aside that, it causes disruption to normal daily life.

What are the causes of frequent urination?

Conditions that can cause frequent urination may be related to normal body functioning or abnormal. Normal conditions causing frequent urination are often transient while abnormal conditions may persist until treated.

Normal conditions causing frequent urination include:

  1. Cold weather – During cold weather, insensible water loss is minimal. Therefore more water is filtered by the kidneys to make urine.
  2. Pregnancy – During pregnancy, there is increased water retention in the body. This may lead to frequent urination. Also, the pregnant uterus may compress the bladder, reducing its volume, thereby limiting the quantity of urine it can hold per time before feeling the urge to urinate.
  3. Excessive drinking of water or alcohol – The body eliminates excess water taken through any of these means through urine. This is necessary to maintain the efficient functioning of the body.

Abnormal conditions causing frequent urination include:

  1. Enlarged prostate – When the prostate is enlarged, it puts pressure on the bladder, reducing its volume. This makes the bladder to get full easily.
  2. Diabetes – Excess sugar in the blood results in the kidneys filtering the excess with urine. As glucose (sugar) attracts water, this quickly increases the volume of urine in the bladder. Diabetes usually leads to frequent passage of large quantity of urine.
  3. Urinary tract infection – This causes irritation of the urinary tract (especially the bladder or urethra), often resulting in frequent passage of little quantity of urine. This may sometimes be painful.
  4. Spinal cord injury – When there is injury to the spine, there is disruption of coordination of the lower part of the body by the brain. Therefore, the control of the bladder by the brain is completely lost and passage of urine becomes an involuntary activity.
  5. Drugs – Drugs such as diuretics (used to treat hypertension) works by removing excess salt from the body through the kidneys. The salt attracts plenty water which is eliminated as urine.
  6. Weakness of the pelvic floor muscles – This makes it difficult to achieve bladder control.

What are the complications of frequent urination?

If not treated, frequent urination may have adverse effects on the body, depending on the cause such as:

  1. Dehydration – This refers to shortage of water in the body. This may result from frequent urination caused by diabetes.
  2. Urinary incontinence – With frequent urination, holding urine for long may become a problem, leading to urinating on the body before getting to the appropriate place.
  3. Spread of infection from the urinary tract to other parts of the body, especially the blood.

What is the treatment for frequent urination?

The treatment for frequent urination depends on the cause:

  1. Reduction in water / alcohol intake – This reduces the quantity of water in the blood which must be filtered by the kidneys.
  2. For pregnancy – Nothing to do, except there is complication by urinary tract infection. The body will adjust after delivery. Counselling is all that is required.
  3. Treatment of urinary tract infection – This requires antibiotics, based on sensitivity testing after culturing the appropriate bacteria causing the infection.
  4. Treatment of diabetes for those affected – This may require insulin or other drugs used in treating diabetes.
  5. Pelvic floor exercise for those with pelvic floor weakness – This helps to strengthen the pelvic muscles, subsequently relieving the symptoms.
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