A painful burning feeling when you urinate is often a sign of a urinary tract infection (sometimes also called a bladder infection). However, painful urination can occur even if you don't have an infection. Certain drugs, like some used in cancer chemotherapy, may inflame the bladder. Something pressing against the bladder (like an ovarian cyst) or a kidney stone stuck near the entrance to the bladder can also cause painful urination.
Painful urination can also be caused by vaginal infection or irritation. You might be sensitive to chemicals in products such as douches, vaginal lubricants, soaps, scented toilet paper or contraceptive foams or sponges. If it hurts to urinate after you've used these products, you're probably sensitive to them.
Overactive bladder is a problem with bladder function resulting in a sudden urge to urinate that is difficult to suppress. It may also cause incontinence, the involuntary loss of urine. Most men with overactive bladder are 65 and older. But women tend to be affected earlier — the prevalence rate begins to climb among women when they reach their mid-40s.
If you have overactive bladder, you may feel embarrassed, isolate yourself or limit your work and social life. A combination of treatments may greatly alleviate symptoms of overactive bladder and help you manage their impact on your daily life.
Symptoms:
Overactive bladder symptoms may mean you:
Feel a strong, sudden urge to urinate
Experience urge incontinence, the unintended loss of urine immediately following an urgent need to urinate
Urinate frequently, usually eight or more times in 24 hours
Awaken two or more times in the night to urinate (nocturia)
You may be able to get to the toilet in time when you sense an urge to urinate and not suffer any leakage. Nonetheless, frequent and nighttime urination, as well as the need to suddenly "drop everything," can significantly disrupt your life.
Overactive bladder without urge incontinence — often called overactive bladder, dry — affects about two-thirds of the people with the disorder. When symptoms include urge incontinence, it's often referred to as overactive bladder, wet.
Causes:
Filling and emptying your bladder is a complex interplay of nerve signals and muscle activity. A problem anywhere throughout this system can contribute to overactive bladder and urge incontinence.
Normal bladder function
Your kidneys produce urine, which travels down a pair of long tubes from your kidneys to your bladder. Urine drains from your bladder through an opening at the bottom (neck) and flows out a short tube called the urethra (u-RE-thruh). In women, the urethral opening is located just above the vagina. In men, the urethral opening is at the tip of the penis.
Your bladder expands like a balloon to accommodate the flow of urine. When it's reached about half its capacity, nerve signals alert your brain, and you sense that your bladder is "full." By the time it's three-quarters full, you feel the need to urinate (void). When you urinate, nerve signals coordinate the relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles and the muscles surrounding the neck of the bladder and upper portion of the urethra (urinary sphincter muscles). The muscles of the bladder contract, forcing urine out.
The symptoms of overactive bladder occur in most cases because the muscles of the bladder involuntarily contract when it's still filling and only about half full. This contraction creates the urgent need to urinate. The urinary sphincter may remain constricted and prevent the bladder from emptying. If not, then a person experiences urge incontinence.
Causes:
Urinary tract infection
Inflammation of tissues near the urinary tract
Abnormalities in the bladder, such as tumors
Factors that obstruct bladder outflow (enlarged prostate, constipation, bladder stones, or previous operations to treat other forms of incontinence)
Diabetes, which can cause excess urine production
Excess consumption of caffeine or alcohol
Medications that cause a rapid increase in urine production
Risk factors
As you grow older, you're at increased risk of developing overactive bladder, and you're also more susceptible to diseases and disorders that can contribute to problems with bladder function, such as enlarged prostate, inflammation of vaginal tissues and diabetes. Although common among older adults, overactive bladder and urge incontinence shouldn't be considered a normal part of aging.
Prostatitis
The prostate is a gland. It makes fluid that becomes part of semen, the white fluid that contains sperm. The prostate lies low in the body — in front of the rectum and below the bladder (where urine is stored). It surrounds the tube that carries urine away from the bladder (urethra).
When you’re a young man, your prostate is about the size of a walnut. It slowly grows larger as you get older. If the prostate gets too large, it can cause urinary problems. Infection or cancer in the prostate can also cause urinary and other problems. Often, men notice symptoms themselves, and sometimes their doctor finds something during a routine check-up.
There are several different kinds of prostate problems. Only a doctor can tell one from another. That’s why you need to see your doctor if something doesn’t seem right to you.
Acute prostatitis is an infection of the prostate caused by bacteria. It usually starts all of a sudden. It can cause fever, chills, or pain in the lower back and between the legs. It can cause pain when you urinate. If you have these symptoms, see your doctor right away. Antibiotic drugs can kill the bacteria and help you feel better.
Chronic prostatitis is an infection of the prostate that keeps coming back time after time. This problem can be hard to treat. Sometimes, taking antibiotics for a long time may work. Talk with your doctor about other things you can do to help you feel better.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, is very common in older men. The prostate is enlarged, but it is not cancerous. Over time, an enlarged prostate may press against the urethra, making it hard to urinate. It may cause dribbling after you urinate or a need to urinate often, especially at night. Your doctor will do a rectal exam to check for BPH. And you may need to have special x-rays or scans to check your urethra, prostate, and bladder.
