Urinary Problems
Question Received:
Response:
Why do I have to urinate 6 or 7 times a night... do I have something wrong with me?
7th April 2000
We are not able to give you a diagnosis - it will be worthwhile making a visit to your doctor so that you can discuss this problem fully with her or him. Your doctor will be likely to carry out a few common investigations that will enable the underlying cause to be established. If necessary, treatment can then be started. You can aid this process by taking along a clean early morning specimen of your urine. The following comments are simply to give you some background information.
Changes in drinking habits before going to bed can increase the need to urinate during the night. For example, the drinking of strong coffee, tea, or alcohol is best avoided. In men over the age of 40 it is not uncommon for the prostate to enlarge. This gland is situated below the base of the bladder and surrounds the urethra. It is responsible for contributing an alkaline secretion to semen. The enlargement is generally benign (benign nodular hyperplasia), but sometimes in men of 60+ a malignancy (cancer) can arise. The symptoms of prostatic disease include difficulty in passing urine (dysuria), getting up several times at night to pass urine (nocturia), incontinence, and retention of urine. Similar symptoms can be produced by changes in the urinary bladder itself.
Another possibility is urinary tract infection. This is more common in women, given the increased vulnerability of a shorter urethra. However, with most infections of this sort the desire to pass urine frequently (frequency of micturition) would exist during the day also. Urine that is infected generally gives off a distinct odour (a fishy smell) and is cloudy, but the absence of these qualities does not rule out urinary tract infection.