Why do I pee so often?

Symptoms:

You’re a man in your late 60s and it’s becoming more difficult to pee, starting is slow, the stream is poor, you dribble but also have to rush to the loo.

You’re in your middle 50s and you can’t hold your pee, you get a sense of urgency every half hour or so, you’re going to the loo all the time.

You find that you’re both drinking more and peeing more, you’re always hungry but you’re losing weight, diabetes runs in the family.

It could be: Enlarged prostate,

benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) which is increasingly common as men get older. It can interfere with peeing because it makes you feel you want to pee.

Irritable bladder syndrome (IBS),

which is similar to irritable bowel syndrome in that it’s due to hypersensitivity of the nerves, but in the bladder lining. It stimulates the bladder to empty.

Diabetes where insulin production diminishes or stops altogether, or is insufficient to control your blood sugar which appears in your urine.

Stop it:

See your doctor for prostate blood tests. There’s a chance it could be prostate cancer and tests will reveal that. Don’t delay getting tested.

Try practising holding your pee longer and longer to retrain your bladder. See your doctor for investigation and treatment. Muscle relaxants can help.

See your doctor as soon as possible, and take a specimen of urine to test for sugar. You may need further tests, like fasting blood sugar, and eventually you may need insulin.