Excessive urination is an inconvenience of having to urinate only minutes after you have gone to the bathroom. It makes you lose your concentration on what you want to accomplish because your mind is always disturbed by the burning urge to urinate. This could also cause an individual stress because of the sleepless nights because one has to wake up several times in the middle of the night to go to the loo. When an adult eliminates at least 3 Liters of urine a day, then it is considered as excessive urination.
Excessive urination can be classified into either of the following subcategories:
• First is polyuria, where a person keeps on urinating and the total volume of urine eliminated is far higher than the average 500mL.
• Second, it can be due to kidney malfunction, with its storage and emptying of urine.
• The last subcategory is urinary incontinence where a person doesn’t even know that he’s already eliminated urine from his body.
Common Causes of Excessive Urination
• Huge intake of fluids and caffeinated beverages – Taking in huge amounts of water and caffeinated drinks such as coffee, which is considered as a diuretic, cause an individual to urinate constantly. Alcoholic drinks could also cause excessive urination.
• Diabetes – Diabetes milletus and diabetes insipidus both cause polyuria or excessive urination for the individual. Our blood sugar increases when we have diabetes. Sugar or glucose causes an increase in our blood’s osmolality, meaning, the fluid from our tissues enters our bloodstream through osmosis. The kidneys will now experience an overload of fluids thus, the individual will feel the need to urinate.
• Pyschogenic polydipsia – This is a condition or a psychological disorder wherein a person thinks that he is thirsty all the time, leading him to drink more than usual. This results to excessive urination.
• Medications or drugs – There are certain drugs that can cause excessive urination. One of the classic examples is diuretics. The name explains itself – it increases urine output of an individual. Examples of diuretics are furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide.
• Kidney failure – Kidney failure will cause the kidney to malfunction so it is now unable to do its work properly. It could lead to urinary incontinence wherein the individual suffers from involuntary urination
Excessive Urination in Women
Frequent urination in women is also a special problem, which may have reasons other than just the above as causes. Here are two other causes that tend to be specific to women:
Urinary Tract Infection in women
The most common reason why some women get frequent urination urge may be due to urinary tract infection. Since women tend to hold their release until they reach a private place or rest-room unlike men, it can backfire leading to inflammation in the bladder. This causes less space in the bladder for storing urine, making the woman prone to excessive urination. Also since the urethra in women are shorter compared to men, and closer to the anus, there are more chances of women getting Urinary Tract Infection. Here is the difference between Urinary Tract Infection and interstitial cystitis
Pregnancy and urine problems:
Pregnancy is also a cause for excessive or frequent urination in women. Since the uterine walls are close to the bladder, it is not so rare for pregnant women to pass urine frequently with time, as the baby(fetus) takes more space, leaving less area for the bladder. Read more about frequent urination in pregnancy
Managing Excessive Urination
There are things you can do to control excessive urination.
• Minimize caffeine intake. A cup or two a day should be enough. Also, avoid excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages.
• Know the real source of excessive urination. You can’t do this by yourself so it is advisable to seek medical attention especially if the excessive urination has been going on for some time.
• The doctor will conduct a series of tests to determine the real cause of your excessive urination. Such diagnostic tests would include electrolyte panel test, blood sugar test, urinalysis and etc.
• After getting the results and after finding out the real cause of frequent urination, the doctor will give specific instructions to treat the disease that caused excessive urination.
Keep in mind that self medicating cannot help solve excessive urination. The best thing to do is to seek medical attention from a qualified doctor because they are the best people to aid in overcoming this problem.
