If you’ve worn a path in the carpet between your bed­room and your bathroom, or if you can’t go on a car trip without stopping at every gas station along the way to use the facilities, you may have a problem with frequent urination. While it may not sound like a serious problem, frequent urination can be a warning signal that you shouldn’t ignore.

It’s time to see your doctor if you have frequent urination and:

  • Excessive thirst
  • Increased appetite
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Frequent
  • Infections
  • Fatigue

If you have these symptoms, you may have diabetes.

  • Painful, burning urination
  • Bloody, bad-smelling urine
  • Pain in your lower abdomen and lower back
  • Low-grade fever

With these symptoms, you may have a bladder infection or other urinary tract infection.

  • For women:
  • Feel ill generally
  • Low-grade fever
  • Pain in your lower abdomen, on one or both sides
  • Bad-smelling discharge from your vagina
  • Painful urination

These are symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), an infection of your reproductive organs.

  • For men:
  • Problems in beginning the urine stream and emp¬tying your bladder
  • Fever and chills
  • Low back pain
  • Achy muscles and joints
  • Unusual discharge from your penis

These symptoms could point to an infection of your prostate gland, known as prostatitis; a sexu¬ally transmitted disease, such as gonorrhea; or an infection of your urethra, the tube that carries urine from your bladder.

  • Problems in beginning the urine stream
  • Weak urine stream
  • Feel as if your bladder is never completely emptied
  • “Dribbling” after urination

These symptoms may indicate that you have benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which is an enlarged prostate, or prostate cancer.