Please help!!! I'm waking up to Pee every 1and half to two hours at night ...

[LikeaHurricane]

As it says above .. in addition I'm 52, periods are infrequent but I've only made it to 6 months and then have a heavy, but short one. This peeing thing started in November last year and happens every single night, without fail. Prior to this, I've been a good sleeper.
I've been to the GP and they've said it's probably perimenopause related and offered to start me on HRT ... but I do like not having many periods and don't want to have one every month ..

Does anyone else have experience of this? If so, when did it stop? It's ridiculous!! I'm up 4 times every night and often, struggle to get back to sleep.
I'm at my wits end.... please help

Have you had your blood sugars tested? I had gestational diabetes and was up like this in the night weeks before I found out! I thought it was a pregnancy thing the diabetic nurse said it's one of the first signs in most people of diabetes.

Hi ohmydays.. thanks for the reply. Yes, I had that tested and it came back negative

it's called vaginal atrophy- VA for short.

Loss of estrogen causes the bladder lining to thin and you pee more.

It's well documented online- have a read.

Treatment is via your GP- Ovestin cream or Vagifem pessary- use forever. This is local estrogen for the vagina which also is absorbed into the bladder. it's not classed as HRT and won't affect periods.

VA. You need Vagifem or cream. Use every day as long as you live. Get it on repeat. I had this in April. Peeing all day long and content infections. Vagifem makes things more comfortable.

I had something similar. It became a lot better when I privately saw a physiotherapist to show me the best way to do pelvic floor excercises.

I have had this for over 10 years I wake up hot and thirsty and pee every 1.5 to 2 hours. I got used to be ratty and coping on half empty.
I am 54 2 years since last period and started using an HRT patch last week which seemed to be helping a bit. But last night I was up umpteen times again. I will look into VA.

Pelvic floor exercises help with leaks and sometimes urgency but they don't reverse loss of estrogen which causes what the OP describes.

Vaginal atrophy is not just about the vagina. The entire lining of the bladder and urethra has cells which are plumped up -in a healthy state- by estrogen. When this falls in peri or post meno, they dry out and you get pain on peeing, too much peeing, and general dryness , redness of the vulva, itching, burning,(and sometimes dryness actually shows up as a thin watery discharge so dryness is a misnomer at times.)

@likaHurrican Good article here on a medical site. advice/factsheets/urogenital-problems/

www.womens-health-concern.org/help-and-advice/factsheets/urogenital-problems/

Trying again but link seems to be broken - but you can copy and paste.

It is worth having a day, (when you are at home and the toilet is available ) drinking plenty of water. Keep some water by you, like you do if you are in hospital, and drink it when you feel the need.

It gives the bladder a bit of a stretch which helps you through the night

It is a tip given by the enuresis nurse when DD used to attend the clinic. I do it if my bladder is feeling sensitive and it helps.

(You will still need to do things mentioned upthread)

I'd never ever needed to get up in the night to wee until now. Although to be fair, I also have had to increase my water intake quite a lot due to low heart rate and BP.

I started taking amitriptyline due to poor sleep anyway and I noticed that when I did, I didn't need the toilet so much. I discussed it with agp friend and she said that it is also sometimes given for people who suffer from enuresis. I don't take it every night now and sure enough, when I don't I'm up for the toilet, when I do, I only need to go once if at all.

Amitriptyline ine has been great for me, but it isn't well tolerated by some. It is none addi tive though so might be worth giving it a trh if everything else is ruled out.

Thank you so much all of you for your replies and all the great information you've provided.
I've got a GP appointment on Tuesday and now I've got something to go on.. brilliant

@JinglingHellsBells ... thank you to you for all the information you've shared. ..
In looking at Ovestin Cream and Vagifem, they both state that they are for use by post meno women. I'm still perimenopausal, as I've not got to 12 months period free as yet...although I have got to 6 months on a few occasions and they are very infrequent. In your experience, will there be any issues in me using it? If you can advise and the answer is "no", then I'll probably tell a fib and say they've been stopped a year ...

@Likeahurricane. Ignore the leaflet. Loads of these leaflets are out of date. I've never even read mine! I was given Ovestin about a year before my periods stopped by a top UK consultant. It' s used by all sort of women- women who are breastfeeding and who are dry and women who are in peri or have irregular cycles for any reason.

I've got estriol cream for itchiness and sore urethra and I'm not officially menopausal, its helped the whole area to feel rejuvenated, tempted to put it on my face!

@JinglingHellsBells and @wigglybeezer ... thank you both for your replies.
I'm pretty sure everything is ok with my pelvic floor .. I can stop a pee mid flow (although I don't make a habit of doing that)
Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Oh, I'm 51 by the way. there's a loading phase by the way, ie. at first you use the cream/pessary every day before cutting down to two or three times a week. during that phase I definitely feel there was a bit of extra oestrogen getting into my general bloodstream beyond the localised area. I got sensitive boobs and other mild hormonal symptoms but this settled down after the loading phase was over.
I have a mild prolapse but no incontinence but was starting to get a few problems relating to my urethra that have now gone away.

Hiya .. all good at the GP today, I have my Estriol cream and need to load for 2 weeks then twice weekly ..got to go back in 6 weeks to see how it's going.

Thank goodness for Mumsnet, you have really helped me. I'm so bloody glad I came on here and asked the question. Thank you

Good luck with it!

Hiya .. I'm almost two weeks in to using the Estriol cream .. GP prescribed to use every night for the first 2 weeks then twice weekly. There's not been much improvement, I'm still waking for the loo around 3/4 times a night, sometimes more. And often, I can't get back to sleep.
I'm thinking that I'm probably going to do an extra week for the loading dose, making it 3 weeks and then drop to 3 times a week.
I don't drink alcohol or tea, coffee or fruit juices... I'm not boring though

@JinglingHellsBells .. and anyone else with experience of Nocturia and Estriol cream, what do you think?
And I know everyone is different, but realistically and approximately, how long can it take to see an improvement?

Thanks so much for reading