This commodity was medically reviewed by Shonda Hawkins, MSN, a member of the Prevention Medical Review Lath, on March 29, 2019.

Picture show this: You lot enter a movie theater. Y'all're and so excited to encounter the movie. But before y'all even think well-nigh locating the exact theater where your movie is playing, yous look for the nearest bathroom. Or this: You're about to buy airplane tickets for a long overdue holiday somewhere tropical, somewhere exotic, simply you wouldn't dare book a window seat. You lot need the aisle for its like shooting fish in a barrel admission to the restroom. And yous know not to wing information technology on road trips, specially after luncheon—you always, always hit the bathroom before getting back in the car.

This is because you always, always, e'er have to pee. Why did the universe curse you lot with this plague? Turns out, at that place's some science behind this—plus a few means to altitude yourself from nonetheless another public stall:

Your perception of "always" might be off.

It may sound like a lot, merely peeing roughly eight times a day is normal, says Betsy A. B. Greenleaf, DO, a urogynecologist based in New Bailiwick of jersey. "Even though information technology'due south annoying," she adds, "getting upwards once during the night is as well considered normal." If you lot're frustrated by how much time you lot spend going to and from the restroom, consider keeping a diary to log your bath breaks. When you really tally upwards your trips, what feels like a lot might be totally normal.

You lot really could take a small bladder.

It's a classic excuse amidst frequent pee-ers: "I merely have a pocket-sized bladder!" Turns out, in that location'southward some truth to this. "Anatomically, everybody tin exist dissimilar, merely like some people are tall and some people are brusk," Greenleaf says.

Near bladders hold about two cups of fluid. If you're going to the bathroom frequently and producing less than that, that's probably non normal, says Dr. Tamara Bavendam, Md, programme manager of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. And yeah, you should actually measure. Grab a container and encounter if you're hitting ane and a half to two cups, she says. (You may want to wait until you're home alone for this item science experiment.)

The good news for the small bladdered is that you tin can train yourself to hold more fluid. "When it's full, it can stretch," Greenleaf says. In tests of bladder capacity, teachers and nurses—people with limited fourth dimension to hitting the toilet—consistently rank the highest, she says. "Some people take this idea that it's non skillful to hold urine in, so when they get the urge they run to the bathroom," Greenleaf says. "That'southward the reverse of stretching. If you give into the urges too frequently, you are training the bladder not to hold as much." (Just don't hold it and so long that information technology starts to hurt.)

You could be inadvertently doing this if you've preemptively started emptying your bladder more frequently in just-in-case scenarios, like in hopes of warding off leakage, say, before a workout, Dr. Bavendam says. "A change in your habits to effort to forbid leakage can contribute to this cycle of going more than and more than oft, and so you feel similar you lot need to go frequently."

To train your small float to become longer between restroom breaks, Greenleaf recommends something called "timed voiding":
• Urinate every thirty minutes for a day or 2, whether you have to get or non.
• Add together xv minutes to the regimen: Urinate every 45 minutes for a twenty-four hour period or two.
• Proceed adding fifteen minutes to this regimen, until over fourth dimension you will have stretched the float out.

Speaking of going to the bathroom...is your #ii normal?

preview for How to Tell If Your Poop is Normal

Y'all're drinking too little water.

Understandably, if you spend a lot of time thinking you have to pee, y'all might be inclined to dehydrate yourself only a touch. If you lot don't drink as much, you won't have to become as often, correct? Turns out this way of thinking is bladder demolition. "When you potable less, the urine becomes more than full-bodied, and the more concentrated it is the more irritating it can be to the float, which tin trigger the awareness that you have to go more often," Greenleaf says. "Information technology you drink more than fluids, you lot may actually be able to hold more, because the more dilute the urine is the less irritating it is to the float."

Of form, you'll too be rushing to pee if you really overdo it on the h2o, and so but drink enough to keep your urine a lite, straw-colored yellow, Dr. Bavendam says. (Stay hydrated with one of these insulated water bottles.)

Yous have an infection or kidney stones.

Both a urinary tract infection and the little crystal formations known every bit kidney stones can irritate the bladder (in the case of stones, it'southward when they laissez passer through the urinary tract and arroyo the bladder), increasing how oftentimes you feel yous have to pee. Both usually besides come up with other symptoms, so y'all should go a hint that something'south up. "Ordinarily a kidney stone volition cause a lot of hurting in the back or sides," Dr. Bavendam says. "Typically with UTIs, the classic sign is urgency, feeling like you need to pee really badly, and it also usually hurts to urinate."

Your pelvic-flooring muscles are weak.

The stronger those down-at that place muscles, the easier information technology is to agree urine in, Greenleaf says. "A lot of women really don't know how to tighten or relax the pelvic-floor muscles," Dr. Bavendam says. Classic mistake: Y'all get a strong urge to go and yous literally run to the loo. "When you're running, your body'south focused on running, not using your muscles to hold urine in your bladder," she says. "Instead, it'southward better to learn how to use your muscles to tighten the pelvic-flooring surface area, let the urge subside, and walk to the bathroom."

Yes, we're talking about Kegel exercises. If you lot don't already know, the exercises are performed by tightening and releasing the muscles you'd use to finish the flow of urine without moving anything else in your body. Yous can become the total scoop here. (Plus, hither are 5 kegel exercise mistakes y'all're probably making.)

This is especially useful advice for women after pregnancy and childbirth. Miraculous milestones, sure, but both tin can do very real impairment and stretching to muscles and tissue, including the float.

There'due south evidence women would fare better in the urinary section if more than attending was paid to recovery, Dr. Bavendam says. "If you injured your leg muscle, you would piece of work at rehabilitating information technology, but that has never been a part of the standard exercise after childbirth," she says. "Yes, a doctor might tell you to exercise your Kegels, but how does a woman actually figure that out amongst taking care of her child and going to piece of work? It tin have a tremendous bear on, simply information technology has to be prioritized every bit existence important to a woman's long-term health."

Your bladder is legit overactive.

If yous're going a lot more often than every few hours, eight times a mean solar day, you might qualify as having an overactive bladder. Information technology's a condition more and more than women find themselves in as they age, maybe because our nerves age along with the states, Greenleaf says. We're more likely to have other medical conditions that also touch on how oft we demand to go, she explains, including back issues that could lead to vertebrae pushing on nerves that and so make the bladder experience full.

Your doctor might desire to test the strength of your stream or use an ultrasound to see if your bladder is emptying completely, Dr. Bavendam says. "An even more sophisticated examination can measure bladder pressure for people who have had unexplained symptoms for a long time," she says. If pelvic floor exercises and adjusting fluid intake don't make a difference, prescription meds might help the bladder relax into belongings more urine.

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You already take other meds.

H2o pills or diuretics, ofttimes used to treat high blood pressure, "can crusade the kidneys to make a lot of urine really quickly," Dr. Bavendam says, which tin can ship you rushing to the bathroom on the double. Another class of meds called anticholinergics, which are used to care for anxiety and depression, amongst other problems, can go on the bladder from elimination completely, she says, thereby leaving you feeling like you've gotta get again when you merely went.

Y'all could have diabetes.

If you lot've ruled out other causes, there's a chance your constant peeing is due to diabetes. If your blood saccharide's high, the kidneys won't be able to procedure all of it, and some can spill into the urine. That carbohydrate will substantially pull more than water out of y'all, Dr. Bavendam says, and then you'll be generating more pee. Even eating nutrient or candy with a lot of saccharide is enough to make you get more than often. "You could become to the bathroom every hr and yet see ii cups every time," she says. "That's not a bladder problem, it's a problem with the amount of urine y'all're producing."

You're freezing.

When the temperature drops, your torso wants to do everything in its power to go along y'all warm. "Part of that procedure involves constricting the blood vessels in your extremities, to keep trunk heat from leaving," Greenleaf says.

But, she says, "the body is a unit of measurement." Constricted vessels in your feet, hands, legs, and arms shifts more than blood to your core, which increases blood force per unit area in the vessels there. And so, your trunk reacts to that elevated claret pressure, wanting to normalize it. It does this by getting rid of extra fluids, just like some mutual meds for high blood pressure level, in a process chosen diuresis.

"Because you are physically making more than urine, the float is filling more quickly and oft, then you lot need to pee more than," Greenleaf says. When it'south all due to the weather? Cold diuresis.

Something more than serious is going on.

Small float or not, many of united states just figure the way nosotros pee is...the fashion we pee. Only a sudden change in frequency or a really powerful urge is something you should bring upwardly with your doc, as it could be a sign of underlying health issues, Greenleaf says. Herniated discs, for instance, may be compressing the nerves. In some people, peeing a lot can be the starting time sign of multiple sclerosis. Tumors growing in the abdomen could press on the bladder. Luckily, these are all rare, just simply to be safe, don't chalk it up to simply getting leakier with age.