Are You Peeing Too Often? Here’s What Urologists Say Is Normal

Many people try to urinate “just in case” before heading out the door or sitting down to watch a movie. While that’s fine occasionally, doing it too often can train your bladder capacity to become less, making you pee more often. It’s normal to pee five or six times a day.

How Often Should You Pee?

After we eat, the body removes nutrients from food and leaves behind waste in our bloodstreams.  

“The kidneys filter the blood to remove impurities, maintain homeostasis, and make sure electrolytes and our acid-base balance is proper. What’s produced by that is urine, and we have to get rid of the urine,” Ronald Benoit, MD, an associate professor of urology and director of general urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told Verywell Health.

The kidneys help eliminate urine, a liquid waste product, from our bodies. Urine travels from the kidneys through muscular tubes called ureters to the bladder. Our bladders are designed to hold about two cups of urine for two to five hours.

“The average number of times in the day might be around five for women, maybe six for men,” Michael A. Savino, MD, director of quality in urology at Northwell’s Staten Island University Hospital, told Verywell.

Your hydration status, the food you eat, your body weight, height, and metabolism all impact how often you void, Savino said.

Is It Bad For Your Bladder to Urinate Too Often?

Many people force themselves to pee before getting in the car in case they won’t have access to a bathroom for some time.

“It’s not harmful to pee just in case when you’re going on a long trip. However, it becomes an issue if this is done all day every day, and the trips to the restroom are very frequent, as in less than 2-3 hours,” Hajar I. Ayoub, MD, a urologist at UTHealth Houston, told Verywell in an email.

You don’t need to tell your bladder to empty. Your brain receives a signal once your bladder is full, and it is time to urinate.

People who frequently urinate just in case will eventually train their bladder capacity to become less, and will find themselves urinating frequently, Ayoub added.

Anxiety, urinary tract infections (UTIs), pregnancy, caffeine intake, and certain medications can all make you have the urge to urinate more frequently.

Should You Try to Hold Your Pee?

You don’t need to worry too much about harming your bladder if you do have to hold your pee.

“You can never hold it until something bad happens. Your bladder is not going to spontaneously burst. There are very few documented spontaneous bladder ruptures in the world’s literature due to holding your urine too long,” Savino said.

Holding your pee may feel uncomfortable, and eventually, you will empty your bladder on yourself.

If you hold your urine often, you may worry about an increased risk of developing a urinary tract infection (UTI). A small 2022 study with women staying in hostels found that about a quarter of the participants reported that holding their urine for long periods contributed to the development of UTIs.

While it is possible that bacteria in your urine could contribute to a UTI, there is not enough evidence to say that, for most people, holding your urine too long will damage the bladder or lead to an infection, according to Benoit.

Should You Worry About Peeing Too Often?

As we get older, our bladders can become weaker and may hold less urine. While rare, uncontrolled diabetes, bladder cancer, and tumors can contribute to increased urination frequency.

“If someone has a dramatic change in the space of days, weeks, or even a month or two, I think it’s a good idea to seek some medical help to make sure there is nothing more serious going on,” Benoit said.

People who have lost control of their bladders can work to retrain this organ with the help of a healthcare provider. If your healthcare provider rules out anything serious, there are other things to try on your own, like cutting back on caffeine and alcohol.

“Caffeine is a diuretic. Caffeine stimulates the bladder and makes the problem worse. So all patients with this problem benefit by decreasing caffeine,” Benoit said.