Night time trips to the loo!

Lack of oestrogen after the menopause can cause bladder irritation along with vaginal dryness and increased risk of UTI. I use vagifem oestrogen pessaries. These do not carry the same risk as HRT tablets and can be taken even if you cannot take HRT due to medical reasons or being "older" This has helped me with urinary frequency at night.

Ha, ha Debs551964 glad I made you smile!

Go through your GP and ask for a referral to the Incontinence Service - there will be one somewhere within the CCG you are in, of course it may be called something completely different mind?

What with that, the Sleep Apnoea mask I am (supposed) to wear, a head full of dull frizzy hair that looks like straw and the lack of teeth now (as I have lost most of them in the last 2 years because of the Sjogrens), I look an absolute bloody picture ......! xx

Thanks cuppaffull - the link does work. Very useful.
so these muscles have a lot of heavy work to do, over the years. Especially for women.

The pelvic floor is a muscle support much like a hammock... don't know if link will work but here goes....

www.continence.org.au/pages/how-do-pelvic-floor-muscles-help.html

Good idea about pelvic floor exercises.
Does anyone know what the 'pelvic floor' consists of?
Is it muscle and bone, or just muscle?

MadeInYorkshire thank you! Your post cracked me up! Got to laugh about it haven't we(e)!!! ???
Well I agree about the Tena lady pads they are sooo expensive. I too need to fi d out how to get the very unsexy nappies through the NHS as I get through so many it's costing a fortune ?. I'm think I'm going to also look into a camping type wee pot but I feel embarrassed as I have my husband in same bedroom. don't fancy him being about whilst I'm peeing tbh ?
It's so nice to listen to others and discuss this embarrassing problem xxx

Are you in the menopause. Before I went on HRT I was going twice every night and it was driving me mental. Now I’m on HRT it’s stopped.

Sometimes when you reach menopause you need to get up in the night for the loo.

I sit on the loo for ages ( really ages ) before I finally go to bed. Otherwise I'm up in the night & as I have to do exercises before I can even sit up in bed the length of time spent sitting on the loo is worth it. And I get a lot of reading done at the same time.

Thank you all, this post has been sooo useful for perspective on an issue that's rarely discussed and which has encouraged me to heap fulsome praise on my OH.
After his prostate surgery 3 years ago, he was having to pee every 2-3 hours day and night but he's been soo diligent in doing his pelvic floor exercises that now he's only up x 1 nightly. It's encouraged me to do them aswell. But persistence and allowing time is the key because each loo visit takes at least 10 mins - so best done at home.... stopping mid flow and restarting, holding and releasing and repeat. And at each visit not just once weekly plus only decaffeinated drinks after noon. He's 72 and not without other post surgery related problems but the pelvic floor exercises have proved invaluable for his (and my)sleep.
And I always know where to find him when he's disappeared... in the smallest room

My friend grew up in a large old house with a downstairs bathroom. The five kids, mum and dad used a bucket on the landing at night (as the house was freezing). She says it was pretty full by morning!

It's once, sometimes twice a night now, for the past few years. My bathroom is way away the other end of my flat, which meant I would be wide awake after that stumbling trip. So now I bring a bucket to the bedroom. My own low-tech ensuite. Barely need to wake up.

In summer I sometimes add the results to the compost heap, it's a great accelerator.

Although having had my prostate removed I still get up three or more times in the night. I do drink a lot of tea and coffee. I find if I wake up I will want to go to the loo.

I need to get up once on most nights and, as my bathroom was downstairs, I’d get back to bed wide awake.
My rather drastic solution was to get planning permission then sell my garden for a building plot. A year later I have a new shower room next to my bedroom, can go for a wee whilst half-asleep and back asleep in moments.

I am 68. Last few years I go before I go to sleep, up 2/3 hours later then same again and then before breakfast. It's hard to get back to sleep agaib.

Willow and Debs

After having my pelvic floor operated on at least 18 times, I am surprised mine has lasted this long to be honest, I do think that being an (ex) rider has helped though!

I have recently been diagnosed with Sjogrens Syndrome and I now have to drink almost constantly all day as I feel so dehydrated - and I am also on medication that requires me to drink a lot. It has now started at night though and I just have to drink as it makes me feel so poorly otherwise, problem is I need about 1/2 a litre before my dreadful thirst is remotely quenched .... as I have a bladder the size of a pea (295mls - normal is generally about twice that) you can imagine what it's like! GP could give me something to help but my BP is too high (stress!) I was sick to death of washing me, my clothes, the floor, my bedding or all 4 of those so I now have a makeshift commode beside my chair! (I sleep in a recliner) Waiting for an appointment (12 weeks) to discuss what I suspect will end up being an NHS Nappy ... but at £1 a throw for Tena/Always needs must - the phrase please could you lend me a Tenner doesn't have quite the same meaning any more, eh? Good job I no longer have a partner!

While on this delicate subject (!), I usually get up once a night, and as we have an en suite it's just a nuisance. My problem is needing to go in the mornings: on getting out of bed, after breakfast, and then again about thirty minutes later, sometimes again 20 minutes later, all copious amounts. Then everything settles down, but if we have to make an early start, I know just where every public loo is en route! Got lost in a nearby town in the car last Saturday, saw a school open for ballet classes, went in and used the "facilities" or there might have been an accident!

narrowboatnan I’ve come to the same conclusion.

Like Phloembundle I dream about looking for loos and invariably they cant be found, or have a huge queue, or are unusable for some reason. In real life I have to get up twice or even three times in the night. I have more or less given up staying with friends, its too embarrassing and disruptive. I even find holidays a bit of a chore, because I dont sleep as soundly when I am away and then am trotting to and from the bathroom half the night. I dont drink caffeine after mid-morning and have no drinks after 8.30pm. Also exercise my pelvic floor muscles three times a week. Nothing seems to help and I get steadily worse, albeit slowly. Goodness knows what things will be like when I am in my 80s!

I very rarely do not wake up to go to the toilet in the night. I am much better if I do not drink after say 9pm and do not go to bed till 11pm. If I have a very bad night and do not sleep due to worry etc I can go to the toilet numerous times. Do not have anything to drink at least two hours before going to bed and see if you are any better. I think you will notice the difference.

I have given much thought to the question of why I have to get up in the night for a wee. Do I wake up because I need a wee, or do I need a wee because I have woken up? I have concluded, after much research in my laboratory (my bedroom) that I only need to wee if I wake up. On the odd occasion that my sleep is undisturbed and I don’t wake up until it’s time to get up, I don’t wee til then. Odd, really.

Imagine what it must have been like when loos were outside...or when you had to squat over the chamberpot.

I dont very often have to get up in the night,but when I do I dont open my eyes a lot, bathroom is opposite our bedroom and the lights from outside are enough I dont need to put the bathrom light on, I then easlily get back to sleep.However during the day its non stop sometimes, due to the diuretics I take in the morning,I always need to know where the loo is if in a strange place. Going on a long journey, I just dont take the tablets that day, the joys of getting old.

I found bladder training during the day helped to cut down on my night time visits to the loo.

If its not me getting up its my OH and if its not him its the dog wanting a wee - either way one, two or even the three of us are up every night.