How to know you’re going to the bathroom too much

If you’ve found yourself making sure you know when your next bathroom break will be, or waking up in the middle of the night to pee, you might be wondering: Am I going to the bathroom too much? The answer depends on the individual, but there are some clear, established guidelines for how much is too much, experts say. Urinating too frequently can even be a sign of an underlying health condition that needs attention.

Here’s what doctors want you to know if you’ve been experiencing this symptom.

“So the dividing line, physiologically, is most of us who have no pathology or abnormal bladders go eight or fewer times daily during our waking hours to urinate. If you go more than eight times during your waking hours, that is defined as increased frequency of urination,” says Dr. Nathaniel Barnes, urological surgeon at Memorial Hermann Health System in Texas.

He says he considers nighttime urination a separate issue, called nocturia. “It may be associated with urgency and frequency, but if a patient shows up in the office and their only complaint is, ‘I go three to five times at night,’ then the No. 1 cause would be obstructive sleep apnea,” he…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/life/