Excessive thirst - how much water is too much?

[Thesepreciousthings]

I have massively increased thirst, unbearable unquenchable thirst. I am drinking around 17 litres of water a day plus coffee and the odd juice. This obviously means I spend an awful lot of time in the bathroom throughout the day, going up to 10 times during the night.

I’ve had to stay on Lithium in order to keep my Bipolar disorder stable. The levels in my blood are already low as happens during pregnancy but the amount of fluid I’m drinking is also watering it down. I’m being monitored by the perinatal MH team.

I’ve read that excessive water drinking can sometimes be very dangerous.

I’m 18 weeks pregnant if that makes a difference.

Looking for any advice whatsoever.

Have you been checked for gestational diabetes?

Increased thirst during pregnancy is normal because your body is producing more blood and other fluids (amniotic fluid etc), but 17 litres is a huge amount.

Any chance it could be gestational diabetes?

Have you mentioned to your midwife?

Sounds like diabetes, get checked ASAP

I haven’t been checked for it yet. I’m not in an ‘at risk’ category as I’m not overweight. That being said I do know a woman who is very slender and she had it.

I’m under the care of a specialist midwife, I’ll give her a text tomorrow.

I had read that increased thirst is common during pregnancy as well as increased urination so hadn’t thought to mention it to the midwife when I saw her. It’s only my partner saying it was way too much to be drinking that made me post on here.

You are drinking way too much water and could upset the rest of your biochemistry. Go to pharmacy or GP and ask for blood sugar level. It is a simple finger prick done then and there.

17 litres is an insane amount. Please speak to a healthcare professional ASAP

17 litres of water a day is an incredibly high amount. Please call the midwifery team as soon as you can to discuss.

Please speak to your midwife. It could be gestational diabetes in which case you will.need advice and possibly treatment. It doesn't matter if you're not in what you consider an "at risk" category. I seem to remember that 15% of women get it and not all of them.will be overweight.

17 litres?! I don’t know how that is possible! I was going to say I’ve had enormous thirst in this pregnancy and I have about 3/4 litres a day which is about 10-15 glasses of water a day. During my peak time I think I had maybe 5 litres but I was drinking non stop, I don’t know how 17 litres would be physically possible! Midwife said in pregnancy you should aim for 3 litres.

As PP have said, I would get tested immediately as that sounds really excessive and not good for your sleep either!

And just to say, I’ve been tested 3 times for diabetes and my booking in BMI was 25 so not overweight. My friend who is amazingly fit and a size 8 has GD so it’s nothing to do with size sometimes.

That’s how much I drank with first pregnancy. I didn’t have gestational diabetes. 16 years on & ive finally managed to get it down to about 5 litres a day.

If you're on lithium you need checking for diabetes insipidus, not just GD. With that level of water intake they need to look at your kidney function and electrolyte levels. I've admitted people to ICU due to complications of excess water intake before now. If I were you I'd go to hospital today.

Thanks guys, I’ve text my midwife asking for tests for GD.

I’m literally drinking constantly all through the day and all through the night. Tempted to set up a sleeping bag by the toilet.

No no no. Like sock queen said - you are on lithium. If you are really drinking 17 litres then you need to see someone who can assess you and take bloods today.

I have also admitted people on lithium with diabetes insipidus to itu. It is very important you are assessed for this.

And it’s an ideosyncratic reaction - it can happen anytime you are taking the drug - not just on starting or dose change.

It will take at least a couple of days for your midwife to set up a glucose tolerance test. And it won't test for anything else, so a negative result is not reassuring. Not wanting to discredit the excellent work midwives do, but in this situation you need to see a doctor, one who has access to same day blood tests. Today.

To put it into perspective, you are drinking more than eight times the usual amount, and that's without adding in tea, juice and the fluids you are taking in from food. This isn't really a 'wait to see your midwife' type of thing. There's something really not right here.

That's a pretty insane amount to be drinking. That would total over 200 glasses of water a day. Are you sure you don't mean you drink 17 glasses and have rounded them to a litre each? It just seems bordering on impossible that's all.

I don’t drink from a glass - a litre sized bottle so pretty easy to establish how much I’m drinking.

Midwife told me she’s arranging a GTT for me. Having read the other posts on here though, I’ll be booking an appointment with the GP tomorrow.

I can conclusively say you're talking out your arse.

Drinking 6 litres of water in 24 hours can easily be lethal to a 165lb adult, according to a YouTube video recently released by the American Chemistry Society. Surprisingly, death by water, or water intoxication as it's officially known, happens quite a lot.

So unless you weigh near 700lbs, you are trolling, or mistaken.

@Marshmallow91 don't forget the cups of tea and juice too 😀
I knew it was very, very unlikely. It's just an extremely excessive amount when you add the extra drinks to that total.
My partner is a bodybuilder and right at the end of his prep period just before he does a show he drinks 5 litres of water a day as the recommended maximum amount and even he really struggles to get that in.

Marshmallow - I can assure you, I’m not a troll, I’m not 700lb and I’m not mistaken.
What a bizarre thing to troll about if I were.

It is excessive, but it’s far from impossible. If you think about it, most people drink a 1/2 litre bottle straight down when they’re thirsty. I’ll drink a litre in the same way. I’d never drink less than 3 litres overnight.