Medical (and Home) Treatments for Frequent Urination
You may have an idea of how many hours of sleep you need per night and how many glasses of water you should drink in a day. But do you know how many times you should urinate?
On average, most of us pee six or seven times a day. Should you find yourself going eight or more times for a day or two, don’t sweat it. But if you persistently need to urinate more than eight times a day and several times at night, then you might have a urinary issue that should be addressed.
Whether you should sweat that depends. Often, frequent urination is simply a side effect of aging, pregnancy, medications, or even your bladder size. However, frequent urination can also be a telltale sign of a urological issue.
Your urologist can offer a range of treatments, but they will depend on the cause. You can also adopt some lifestyle practices that may help reduce the frequency of urination.
Understanding How Urine Travels Through Your Body
To understand the possible causes of frequent urination, it is helpful to know the body parts involved in the passage of urine. These include:
Your kidneys, which filter waste from the bloodstream and send the liquid remains to your bladder.
Your ureters, the tubes that transport urine from your kidneys to your bladder.
Your bladder, a hollow organ that stores urine until it reaches capacity (typically two cups for two to five hours).
Your urethra, which moves urine out of your body.
In addition, these body parts affect urination:
Your prostate (for men), a small gland that releases reproductive fluid. It sits beneath the bladder and surrounds the urethra.
Your pelvic floor, the muscles and ligaments that support your bladder, reproductive organs, and bowel, keeping them in place.
If you experience frequent urination, it could be due to a malfunction of one or more of these body parts.
5 Urological Conditions that Trigger the ‘Gotta Go’ Urge
From your kidneys to your pelvic floor, the following issues can cause frequent urination:
Urinary tract infection (UTI) – A bacterial infection of your urethra, bladder, ureters, and/or kidneys, typically the result of the bacteria entering the urethra. Nearly half of all women and 3% of men experience UTIs.
Overactive bladder (OAB) – This condition occurs when the bladder muscles contract involuntarily, even when the bladder is not full, prompting an immediate need to urinate. OAB is commonly due to faulty nerve signals to the brain.
Interstitial cystitis (IC, or painful bladder syndrome) – A chronic condition in which the bladder becomes inflamed, with symptoms similar to UTIs, such as pelvic discomfort and painful urination. However, IC is not an infection; the exact cause is unknown.
Enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH) – The male prostate gland begins to grow at ages 40 to 50 and eventually might squeeze the urethra so much that it’s difficult to pass urine. This irritates the bladder, causing it to contract even when there is only a little urine, leading to frequent bathroom trips, often at night.
Pelvic prolapse – The muscles at the bottom of your pelvis hold your bladder and other organs in place. If these muscles grow weak due to pregnancy, obesity, or aging, your bladder can bulge into the vaginal canal, and the pressure will make you need to urinate more frequently.
What Your Doctor Can Do to Treat Frequent Urination
A urologist can diagnose the cause of frequent urination through a physical exam and consultation. Be prepared to provide answers about the medications you’re taking, the shade of your urine, the liquids you drink, and how often you urinate.
Your doctor might perform blood and urine tests, as well as a test to measure the pressure in your bladder (urodynamics), to diagnose nerve or muscle interference. In some cases, the urologist will perform an internal examination of the urethra using a slim, flexible scope with a camera.
Your treatment will depend on the cause. For the following conditions, medical options include:
Urinary tract infections – Antibiotics will clear up the infection, while plenty of fluids will help flush the bacteria out. Cranberry supplements might help by balancing your acid (pH) levels.
Overactive bladder – Some medications, such as beta-agonists, can relax your bladder muscles to reduce urination frequency. In-office treatments include Botox injections and nerve stimulation, in which devices are applied or implanted to modulate nerve impulses to the bladder.
Interstitial cystitis – Antidepressants and antihistamines can alleviate urination pain and frequency, while biofeedback uses sensors to teach you to relax your pelvic floor muscles. Some patients experience improvement after their bladder is expanded with water (bladder hydrodistention).
Enlarged prostate – Several prescriptions can relax the urethra or shrink prostate tissue. Minimally invasive treatments include prostate artery embolization and tissue removal, the latter performed via lasers, high-pressure water, or electric currents. An incision-free approach, called UroLift, uses implants to lift the tissue away from the urethra. Surgical removal might be required for severe cases of BPH.
Pelvic prolapse – Vaginal pessaries, small disks, can be inserted into the top of the vagina to hold the bladder in place. Surgically, your vaginal tissue can be used to rebuild the pelvic floor.
Remedies and Precautions You Can Practice at Home
Some home remedies can reduce urinary frequency, depending on the cause. These are all healthy practices, regardless, and could benefit you:
- Drink enough Based on what and how much you drink, you might need to adjust your liquid intake to more water and less coffee and alcohol, which are diuretics.
- Limit excess weight. Extra pounds can pressure your bladder and pelvic floor muscles, straining their ability to hold urine. All bodies are unique, so consult your doctor about a healthy weight for you.
- Reduce ultra-processed foods. Ongoing research correlates OAB risk with eating ultra-processed foods, which tend to be high in salt, artificial additives, and fats that can cause inflammation.
- Practice Kegels. Doing this exercise strengthens your pelvic floor muscles by repeatedly tightening and releasing them (pretend you’re trying to prevent urine flow). Kegels are among several exercises that can strengthen your pelvis.
- Delayed urination. This technique trains people with OAB-related frequent urination to hold off on going to the bathroom by small increments that lengthen over time.
Ideally, these home-based practices will reduce how much you urinate, but if not, you should consult a urologist. Don’t wait until “How much?” becomes too much.
Interested in learning more? Take our OAB symptom quiz. Or, access all the urinary conditions we treat on our website.
You can request an appointment to visit one of our urologists at any of our 14 locations in the Greater Detroit area here.
