Frequent Urination: How many times a day do you go pee?
How many times per day do you go pee? Many of us probably don’t consider the frequency to be an issue until it starts interfering with our daily lives. For example, having to get up in the middle of the night, resulting in fatigue or having to go multiple times during a work meeting. Frequent urination can also create anxiety around traveling, going out or potentially leaking.
So what is the magic number? Although it depends on a number of factors (age, medications, medical conditions, pregnancy, menopause), an average of 5-8 times within a 24 hour period is considered “normal”, and up to once per night if you are over the age of 55 or pregnant.
Frequent urination is a common pelvic floor issue that we see in both men and women of any age. Aside from the disruption in daily life, going pee more frequently than normal can perpetuate the problem. Frequent urination can lead to strong urgency signals with smaller and smaller volumes of urine over time.
Is your bladder urgency interfering with your life? Ask yourself these questions:
- Do you know where the nearest bathroom is, wherever you go?
- Do you feel a strong sense of urgency, but then only feel like you pee a small amount?
- Do you pee without a sense of urgency “just in case” you may not have a chance to go later?
- Do you think you have a smaller bladder than most people?
- Do you worry about leaking urine if you do not go to the bathroom as soon as you feel the need to?
If you answered YES to any (or all) of these questions, read on!
Bladder urgency is defined as an intense desire to urinate that is difficult to delay or ignore. Sometimes emptying the bladder does not alleviate this feeling, leaving you feeling like you have to strain to urinate further or like you have to pee very soon after just going.
(Disclaimer: In this post we are talking about urgency / frequency in the absence of known medical issues – particularly infection).
What causes bladder urgency?
The bladder contains stretch receptors that are activated when it fills to a certain volume and then it relays a message to our brain that is interpreted as a need to urinate. Our bladder is designed to hold large volumes of urine – large enough to last a full night of sleep!
However, these receptors can also be triggered by other factors such as increases in intra-abdominal pressure as well as tension in fascia and muscles that are connected or close to the bladder. These factors can stimulate the stretch receptors in the bladder wall and can create a sense of urgency even when the bladder is not full. Have you ever felt the urge to go pee, and then had very little come out?
Over time, these stretch receptors can also become more sensitive – meaning they can send the signal up to the brain with lower levels of the stimulus (less urine in the bladder, for example).
Bladder urgency and frequency can be very frustrating. But the good news is that our bladder is a muscle that can be trained and the stretch receptors can also learn to be less sensitive again. Our pelvic floor physiotherapists can help you identify which factors are contributing to your symptoms and set up a treatment plan that leads to less trips to the bathroom!