Frequent urination is a condition when you experience the need to urinate more than what is normal. You may experience it during the day or at night – sometimes, you experience it only during the night. Frequent urination can interfere with your work, sleep, and general well-being. Therefore, it is important to understand what causes this problem and how you can find a treatment.

What Are the Causes of Constant Urge to Urinate?

You may have an underlying health condition that makes you experience frequent urination. Here are some of the most common causes:

• Urinary tract infections: Frequent urination may well be a sign of urinary tract infections. You are more likely to develop an infection if you also experience other symptoms, such as pain in the abdomen and fever.
• Diabetes: If you experience a constant need to urinate and pass a large amount of urine as well, this may well be because you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. You urinate more because your body tries to eliminate excess glucose through urine.
• Pregnancy: You may notice a considerable increase in the number of bathroom visits during pregnancy. It usually becomes more noticeable when the uterus grows in size and places more pressure on the bladder.
• Prostate problems: The urethra is the tube that takes urine out of your body, but there may be a blockage caused by an enlarged prostate. Your prostate presses against the urethra and irritate the bladder wall. This makes your bladder to contract even when it does not contain enough urine. This also causes a constant urge to urinate.
• Interstitial cystitis: What causes this condition is not clear, but it leads to pain in the bladder and pelvis. You may also experience many other symptoms along with an urgent need to urinate.
• Diuretic use: You may be experiencing a need to urinate more often because you are taking diuretics to treat high blood pressure. These medications help flush excess fluid from the kidneys or the body, and make you experience frequent urination.
• Stroke and neurological problems: Any damage done to nerves that lead to the bladder may result in frequent urination with sudden urges to urinate.

In addition, many people experience a sudden need to urinate when they have bladder cancer or are undergoing radiation therapy.

What Symptoms You Are Going to Experience

You may experience frequent urination because of many underlying conditions, but the symptoms are usually the same. Here are some of the most common symptoms you may experience with a constant urge to urinate:

• You may urinate more than eight times a day.
• You may experience incomplete evacuation of the bladder every time you urinate.
• You may experience a sudden stoppage of the urine flow with difficulty starting the flow.
• You may find it difficult to control the flow of urine, leading to accidental leakage.
• You may have pain with a burning sensation while urinating.
• You may notice blood in the urine with small clots.
• You may experience urine dribbling out after you have finished urination.
• You may have nighttime urinary incontinence and wake up in the middle of the night to urinate.

When to See Your Doctor

You should go talk to your doctor if you think you are urinating more often than usual, if you are experiencing frequent urination and your fluid intake is the same as before, or if the problem affects your sleep and you have other worrisome symptoms as well.

You should seek immediate medical attention if you have frequent urination with other symptoms such as painful urination, blood in the urine, dark brown urine, difficulty emptying your bladder, and pain in your groin. Fever, loss of bladder control, and pain in your lower abdomen may also indicate underlying conditions and infections, so talk to your doctor as soon as possible.

What Can You Do to Treat It

As you can see, it is quite irritating and annoying to deal with the symptoms associated with frequent urination. Treatment usually depends on the underlying condition. For example, you may have to take antibiotics with painkillers if a kidney infection is the underlying cause of frequent urination.

Some other common treatment options to control your constant urge to urinate include the following:

• Kegel exercises: Your doctor will treat any underlying condition you may have but they will also teach you how to perform Kegel exercises to strengthen your urethra as well as the muscles of the pelvis. Discuss it with your doctor and learn the right technique to perform the exercises – you usually need to perform these exercises 30-80 times a day for at least 8 weeks for results.
• Bladder training: The treatment option involves learning ways to train the bladder to hold urine longer. It helps reduce the number of bathroom visits.
• Fluid intake control: How much fluid you take will also determine how often you need to go to the bathroom. Drinking too close to bed may well be the reason why you have an urge to urinate in the middle of the night.
• Diet: You may have to eliminate food from your diet that irritates your bladder. The most common culprits are alcohol, caffeine, spicy foods, chocolate, and artificial sweeteners. Being on a high-fiber diet may help.