Your bladder is a major component of your urinary tract, serving to hold urine prior to urination. It is composed of muscles and controlled by nerves. Sometimes your bladder can retain urine and you are unable to urinate. In other instances, your bladder may contract to the extent that you can no longer hold your urine. Also, it may be painful for you to urinate. Urinary retention, urge incontinence, frequent urination and painful urination are all bladder symptoms.
Urinary Retention
Urinary retention refers to a condition in which your bladder does not contract to release urine from your body. According to the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC), urinary retention is literally the inability to empty your bladder. You may have difficulty starting to urinate, or you may not be able to empty your bladder completely. Sometimes your bladder can be completely full and you are not able to urinate at all.
Treatment for urinary retention involves a medical professional placing a thin tube into your urethra to drain the excess urine. Sometimes a fallen bladder or an enlarged prostate in men can cause urinary retention, so surgery may be necessary to correct these medical problems. Frequent urinary tract infections, bladder damage and chronic kidney disease are complications of urinary retention if it is not treated, says the NKUDIC.
Urge Incontinence
MedlinePlus says that urge incontinence is a condition in which your bladder muscles frequently contract and lead you to have the urge to urinate. Specific signs of urge incontinence include frequent urination during the day or night, sudden loss of urine and the sudden need to urinate.
Treatment includes taking such medications as oxybutynin to relax your bladder muscles, flavoxate to dampen your urge to urinate and tricyclic antidepressants such as imipramine to paralyze your bladder muscles. Simply avoiding spicy foods, caffeine and acidic foods can also decrease urge incontinence. MedlinePlus suggests that bladder retraining is another treatment option wherein you can perform Kegel (pelvic) exercises to strengthen your pelvic muscles.
Frequent and Painful Urination
Other bladder symptoms include frequent and painful urination. Frequent urination means that you urinate more than you normally would. MedlinePlus says that frequent urination at night is medically called nocturia. Bladder or prostate infections, medications, bladder cancer or dysfunction and radiation treatments are some causes of frequent urination. Treatment of frequent urination is dependent upon its cause.
Painful urination, also known as dysuria, is a condition in which you feel a burning sensation when you urinate. The Mayo Clinic says that a urinary tract infection is the most common cause of painful urination in women. Other causes of this condition include kidney stones, sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, vaginitis, a bladder infection and a yeast infection. As with frequent urination, treatment for painful urination is dependent upon its cause.
