Further symptoms to narrow down the cause
Common to all causes of the urge to urinate is the need to urinate.Depending on the respective cause, the symptoms are, however, differently pronounced and also accompanied by various other signs. For example, the first type of diabetes mellitus leads to a pronounced feeling of thirst and, as a result of drinking large quantities, to the excretion of large amounts of urine. This is often accompanied by weight loss.
With type two of diabetes there can also be an urge to urinate, but as a late consequence of a blood sugar level that has been poorly adjusted over the years, nerve damage occurs here, which can also affect the nerves of the bladder. These nerves then lose the function of informing the brain early on about the filling state of the bladder and only report this after a major stimulus, i.e. when the bladder is already very full. By then it is often already too late and those affected can no longer make it to the toilet in time and lose small amounts of urine (overflow bladder, overflow incontinence).
If renal insufficiency is the cause, in addition to the urge to urinate and initially large amounts of urine, this is accompanied by fluid accumulation (edema) in the legs and often also by itching of the skin. In the case of a cardiac insufficiency (heart failure), edema also occurs during the daytime and often leads to reduced physical performance. The urge to urinate and frequent urination is more likely to occur at night.
The typical symptom after the urge to urinate is that the start of urination is unintentionally delayed, the urine stream is usually only weakened and there is often an urge to urinate at night. If the urge to urinate is caused by an inflammation of the bladder, only small amounts of urine can be excreted and pain, especially burning, occurs. All in all, those affected feel exhausted and sometimes a fever accompanies the urge to urinate.
If you have to empty your bladder more than twice at night, this is called nocturia. Various factors can lead to a nightly urge to urinate. One cause is the late intake of dehydrating medication, which unfolds its effect at night and leads to the nightly urge to urinate.
The simplest solution here is to take these drugs earlier. Another typical cause of the nightly urge to urinate is cystitis. Likewise, an enlarged prostate causes a nocturnal urge to urinate.
This is also characteristic of cardiac insufficiency. Here, an insufficient pumping capacity of the heart during the day leads to an accumulation of fluid (edema) in the legs, which then appear swollen and heavy. At night, these oedemas are absorbed and the body has a larger amount of fluid at its disposal, which it then tries to compensate for by excreting urine, which becomes symptomatic in the nightly urge to urinate.
A very interesting and important aspect is that a urge to urinate, which is triggered psychogenically, i.e. without an underlying organic cause, usually does not occur during sleep but only during the day. Consequently, an urge to urinate that wakes the affected person from sleep should be considered an indication of a causative organic disease. Frequent urge to urinate, but where nothing or only little occurs, is called pollakiuria by definition.
The most common cause of this in men is benign enlargement of the prostate. This enlargement causes the urethra to narrow, resulting in a high resistance in it, which can only be overcome by high pressure, i.e. when the bladder is filled to a large extent. As a result, the bladder cannot empty itself completely, since the pressure in the urethra can no longer be overcome with less bladder filling.
As a result, there is usually still a feeling of incomplete emptying, even though nothing or hardly any urine comes out. The irritable bladder is another typical example of the fact that nothing comes despite the urge to urinate, in which the overactive bladder generates an urge to urinate even with minimal filling, and consequently only the smallest amounts of urine can be excreted. The same phenomenon can be triggered by pregnancy.
An inflammation of the bladder also means that only small amounts of urine can usually be excreted, since the inflamed bladder, like the irritable bladder, triggers the urge to urinate too early. A typical reason for the urge to urinate in men is the benign enlargement of the prostate (hyperplasia) or, more rarely, its inflammation (prostatitis). The prostate gland becomes increasingly enlarged with increasing age and thus, over time, almost every man is affected.It is not uncommon for this cause to become symptomatic from the age of 50 in the form of an urge to urinate.
The urge to urinate is accompanied by a delayed onset of urination and also by a weakened urinary stream, which means that the bladder cannot be emptied completely. The remaining urine is a risk factor for the development of cystitis. The treatment aims at stopping the growth of the prostate.
This can be achieved by medication or surgery. In women, one of the most common causes of the urge to urinate is an inflammation of the bladder, as the urethra is shorter in women than in men. Bacteria can therefore enter the bladder more quickly and lead to an inflammation there.
The urge to urinate is also typical for women during pregnancy. On the one hand, this can be one of the first signs of pregnancy, on the other hand it also occurs as the pregnancy progresses due to the growth in size of the baby and the resulting compression of surrounding organs, such as the bladder. Likewise, the so-called irritable bladder, i.e. an overactive bladder, occurs relatively frequently in women.
Even if the bladder is only slightly full, the overactive bladder reports information to the brain, which leads to the urge to urinate. Urge to urinate during pregnancy is characteristic above all in its early phase and can occur from about the sixth week of pregnancy onwards, whereby the urge to urinate can be a first sign of pregnancy. The urge to urinate in early pregnancy is mainly caused by hormonal changes in the woman’s body.
However, as the pregnancy progresses, the urge to urinate also occurs frequently, which is then mainly due to the growth of the baby and thus an increase in the size of the uterus, which then presses on surrounding structures and organs, such as the bladder. A typical cause of the urge to urinate, which is accompanied by pain when urinating, is cystitis (inflammation of the bladder), in which the pain has a burning character. In most cases, the urge to urinate and the subsequent urination is painless and is often due to causes such as an enlarged prostate or simply an increased amount of drinking. However, since it can also be caused by other internal diseases such as heart or kidney weakness, the urge to urinate should be examined by a doctor, even if it does not cause pain.
