About
Frequent urination means needing to urinate more often than usual. Urgent urination is a sudden, strong urge to urinate. This causes a discomfort in your bladder. Urgent urination makes it difficult to delay using the toilet.
A frequent need to urinate at night is called nocturia. Most people can sleep for 6 to 8 hours without having to urinate.
Causes
Common causes of these symptoms are:
- Urinary tract infection (UTI)
- Enlarged prostate in middle-aged and older men
- Leakage of urine from the urethra (the tube that carries urine out of your body)
- Swelling and infection of the urethra
- Vaginitis (swelling or discharge of the vulva and vagina)
Less common causes include:
- Alcohol use
- Anxiety
- Bladder cancer (not common)
- Drinking caffeine
- Diabetes that is not well controlled
- Pregnancy
- Interstitial cystitis
- Medicines such as water pills (diuretics)
- Overactive bladder syndrome
- Radiation therapy to the pelvis, which is used to treat certain cancers
- Stroke and other brain or nervous system diseases
- Tumor or growth in the pelvis
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When to Contact a Medical Professional
Call your provider right away if:
- You have fever, back or side pain, vomiting, or shaking chills
- You have increased thirst or appetite, fatigue, or sudden weight loss
Also call your provider if:
- You have urinary frequency or urgency, but you are not pregnant and you are not drinking large amounts of fluid.
- You have incontinence or you have changed your lifestyle because of your symptoms.
- You have bloody or cloudy urine.
- There is a discharge from the penis or vagina.
Alternative Names
Urgent urination; Urinary frequency or urgency; Urgency-frequency syndrome; Overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome; Urge syndrome.
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