Waking to pee every 2 hours

[MiddleOfThePack]

I'm knackered when I go to bed at around 11pm but then I'm up every couple of hours to pee. Currently on solifenac (?) & tried oestrogen pessaries before. Full blood tests back last week. Not anaemic, not diabetic, not anything else.

Otherwise very fit and healthy but it's affecting my sex life (zero) & DH is very frustrated. Work is suffering a bit too as I'm so tired all the time.

I'm a regular runner but always feel I'd run better if I wasn't tired. I only go out 3 or 4 dpw and run for half an hour to an hour, depending how I feel so I don't consider that too much. Been a runner for 40 years now so my body is well used to it.

DH doesn't help as he comes to bed between 1am and 3 am, and then expects me to just switch on for it. When we do have time during the day, the kids (24 & 22) are around or we are working.

How do I get some sleep & not pee all the time.

Do you drink alcohol? I used to drink little too often daily. I always woke up for a loo once or twice every night. I did dry January and now I try to drink as little as possible. I sleep through the night.

Not a big drinker. Glass on a Saturday with dinner but not much more than that. Trying not to drink too much caffeine but as with everything else in life for menopausal ladies I get fed up being told not to drink caggiene, alcohol, don't watch TV too soon before bed, don't exercise before bed, don't enjoy yourself, etc.

There must be a way to live what I think if as a normal life but just stop peeing at night? I can go most of the day for hours between loo stops so why just at night?

I had to start on full HRT to improve my sleep as I would need a wee 6 or 7 times a night and was already using Vagifem pessaries. Now I use the topical HRT plus Evorel 75 patches and daily utrogestan tablet at bedtime. It’s made a huge difference and generally within a couple of days I was sleeping better and waking once for a wee. I am early 50s, fully menopausal for several years but this has been a life changer.

Try not to think of less alcohol, caffeine etc or more sleep as a bad thing, but rather as a way of improving your health? Sorry, I know it sounds trite but it has really helped me to make changes like this and keep to them. I recommend reading "Why we sleep" by Matthew Walker as a starting point - it really motivated me to improve my sleep habits.

It can take 10 hours for caffeine to leave your body, so maybe you need to stop having coffee any later than 1pm.

And tell your dh that you need to get some rest if he wants some action, so he needs to start going to bed when you do, not waking you up night after night.

Hope you find a better solution to your problem.

I gave up caffeine which helped a bit, and was told to drink more as my bladder was getting lazy. Then was sent for a urinary scan. They found nothing. I was paranoid it was ovarian cancer as this is a symptom.

Then really for other reasons I started HRT and all those issues disappeared virtually overnight.

@MiddleOfThePack Did you try Vagifem (or Ovestin cream is another option) for long?

IME it can take a good few months to really work. I'm talking 6 months, although improvements will be sooner than thatt.

Sometimes, posters come here and say they tried it for a few weeks and say it didn't help. Also, it's quite possible to increase the dose above what's on the leaflet.

Just a bit of history on Vagifem...

until a few years ago, the dose was 25mcgs. Then they changed it to 10mcgs.

BUT they didn't change the number of days per week.

So women are getting less than half the original dose.

You can use it every other day or even daily until you get some improvement.

So my advice is that if you used it for under 6 months, give it another go and really stick with it.

It has to be used for life, and not just for a few weeks (or months.)

You might also need full systemic HRT as a PP said, to make a difference, but it's really worth giving vaginal estrogen a good try first.

Oh and your H is being completely unreasonable to expect sex at 3am when you are asleep. How dare he!

I know DH is being unreasonable. He prefers watching aussie gold hunters to coming to bed. We discuss this often!

Re HRT, I have a history of breast cancer so can't use HRT, but did use vaginal oestrogen pessaries for a bit. I've not heard of the creams though - assume you can get from the pharmacy?

I used to get up almost hourly to pee during the night and mentioned it to my locum GP one day, when she asked if I was ok with my bp meds. She said it rang alarm bells for sleep apnoea. I have since been diagnosed, use a CPAP machine, and only get up once during the night. It has transformed my life. This may not fit your situation OP, but it may help someone else who reads this thread.

[quote JinglingHellsBells]@MiddleOfThePack Did you try Vagifem (or Ovestin cream is another option) for long?

IME it can take a good few months to really work. I'm talking 6 months, although improvements will be sooner than thatt.

Sometimes, posters come here and say they tried it for a few weeks and say it didn't help. Also, it's quite possible to increase the dose above what's on the leaflet.

Just a bit of history on Vagifem...

until a few years ago, the dose was 25mcgs. Then they changed it to 10mcgs.

BUT they didn't change the number of days per week.

So women are getting less than half the original dose.

You can use it every other day or even daily until you get some improvement.

So my advice is that if you used it for under 6 months, give it another go and really stick with it.

It has to be used for life, and not just for a few weeks (or months.)

You might also need full systemic HRT as a PP said, to make a difference, but it's really worth giving vaginal estrogen a good try first.[/quote]
When did they change it?

When you get up every 2 hrs at night -- do you wee lots each time or is it just tiny amounts?

Do you need to wee every 2 hrs in day time, too? Lots or little flow?

There are all sorts of irritable bladder syndromes, some have effective treatment.

When did they change it? @MuffinStrops

Why do you need to know?

I can't remember. If you search online the info might be there.
It was a few years back.

I sympathise with this. You could try Ovestin oestrogen cream - it takes a few months to feel the effects but is said to be a better option than systemic HRT if you have family history. The other thing I tried which worked quite well is AZO Bladder Control - they are herbal but do use soy germ - they worked quite well for me - you can get them from Amazon. The other thing to consider is whether you’ve had a UTI in the last year or so - it’s complicated but sometimes an low lying UTI can hang around when the vagina and urethra are lacking oestrogen. The remedy is probably the oestrogen cream and possibly a short course of antibiotics for UTI but you would need to speak to a GP and I’ve not found them very helpful. Otherwise you can purchase the antibiotics at Superdrug online but use your own discretion. Hope this helps.