Many of us are constantly on the go. But if, in your case, the phrase applies to your trips to the bathroom, you may be wondering what is happening to the pipes in your body.
Often times, a constant urge to urinate can be due to drinking too much water or being nervous, but it can sometimes indicate a more serious medical problem. At the very least, it can be annoying and even embarrassing.
How many times a day should you urinate?
It's probably more than you think. The "normal" frequency is considered up to eight times during the day when you are awake and once at night during sleep.
If you drink more than eight 8-ounce cups, you can go even more. The same is true during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester when the rapidly growing baby crushes your bladder (and don't worry, this should resolve once you deliver).
If you urinate less than four times a day , you may not actually be drinking enough fluids. This is especially true if your urine is bright or dark yellow in color, indicating dehydration.
If you go four to eight times a day and your urine is light yellow to clear, it is a good indication that you are well hydrated and that your bladder is working as it should.
But if you feel like peeing a lot more than that, it may indicate that something is wrong with your pipes or that you may want to make some adjustments.
Why do you feel like urinating all the time?
You are drinking too much caffeine
Caffeine, found in coffee, tea, and some soft drinks, is a diuretic, which means it can make you urinate more. It can even increase the urge to pee.
It is believed to stimulate the smooth muscle of the bladder and can also irritate your tissues, which can cause it to contract involuntarily.
A February 2013 study published in the International Journal of Urogynecology found that women who drink more than 329 milligrams of caffeine a day (about three cups of coffee) are 70 percent more likely to have urinary incontinence than women. that they don't.
If you drink a lot and notice that you go to the bathroom a lot, it is recommended to limit yourself to less than 300 milligrams of caffeine per day.
Caffeine isn't the only culprit either. Alcohol (beer, wine, or hard liquor) can also make you more hungry, as can certain acidic fruits (such as oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes) and fruit juices.
You have a urinary tract infection
More than half of all adult women experience at least one of these unpleasantnesses at some point in their life, according to a May 2019 article in Therapeutic Advances in Urology.
These painful infections occur when bacteria invade the bladder. If you have one, you will most likely feel like you have to go all the time, even after urinating, and notice a burning sensation.
Although you might normally think of a UTI as something you get after sex, we see it a lot among postmenopausal women as well, because the lack of estrogen within the vagina changes the flora and makes women more susceptible to infections. .
If you think you have a urinary infection, call your doctor so they can ask you to have a urine culture and give you a course of antibiotics. But if you seem to get a lot of them, there are things you can do to help prevent them too.
If you use a spermicide with your birth control (for example, a condom or diaphragm), you may want to switch to another method, as spermicides appear to promote bladder infections in some women. Your doctor may also recommend that you drink more fluids and urinate immediately after having sex to kill germs that could enter the bladder during sex.
If you are postmenopausal, your doctor may prescribe vaginal estrogen, either in the form of a cream or as a flexible ring that is placed in the vagina.
Your pelvic floor muscles are weak
Your pelvic floor muscles support many of the organs in your urinary system, including the bladder. But if these muscles weaken, something that happens when you give birth vaginally, as well as over time with regular aging, the organs can slip slightly out of place and cause more frequent urination.
The best way to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles is to do Kegel exercises . Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles, like you're trying to stop the flow of urine, for three seconds. Relax for a count of three, then repeat several times. Try to do them three or four times a day.
If that doesn't help, you may want to consider a pelvic physical therapy course , where they teach you specific exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.
If that doesn't work, you could be a candidate for surgery, where your doctor uses strips of synthetic mesh and your own tissue to create a sling from your bladder to where it connects to your urethra (neck of the bladder).
Although very effective, this surgery is not recommended until you are finished having children, as pregnancy and childbirth can again weaken the pelvic floor muscles.
You have an overactive bladder
About 15 percent of women have an overactive bladder, a condition in which you have a frequent and sudden urge to urinate, according to a March 2016 article in Current Bladder Dysfunction Reports. Although it can occur at any age, it is more likely to occur as you get older and go through menopause, as the bladder tissue is more likely to become irritated due to a lack of estrogen .
If you have uncontrollable urges that can even be triggered by behaviors such as opening the door when you get home, going out in the cold, running the tap, or washing your hands, an overactive bladder is likely the cause.
One of the first-line treatments is bladder training, which means going to the bathroom on a schedule while you are awake. You'll start by peeing at specific intervals throughout the day, starting with a short interval between trips to the bathroom. Although an urgent need to go before the scheduled time, try to suppress the urge by doing Kegel exercises. As your urine control improves, increase the time between bathroom visits until you can safely go three to four hours without urinating .
If that's hard to come by, there are medications you can take to help reduce the need, such as tolterodine or solifenacin. But these drugs have side effects like dry mouth and constipation.
Another option is a sacral nerve stimulator (SNS), a pacemaker-sized device that is surgically implanted in the butt and connected with wires to a nerve in the lower back. This sends electrical pulses to the nerve, which can help with the feeling of urgency.
