Q. Can anxiety and stress cause frequent urination?

Answered by

and medically reviewed by iCliniq medical review team.

Published on Mar 30, 2018 and last reviewed on: May 10, 2019

Patient's Query

Hello doctor,

I am a 34 year old male. I had anxiety issues since childhood. I have been jumping from one idea to another for a long time but it has been three years I have an issue with frequent urination. It started in a bad time for me when I was obsessing that I have HIV. No burning, just slight urethra burning. I went to a urologist. He told me nothing was wrong, maybe an overactive bladder. I go to the toilet every two hours or three. I never knew what was wrong, but I started to obsess over it and it got worse to a place that my mind is in urination 24/7. I almost gave up until I went on a vacation and during that vacation, I forgot about it totally. The frequency was gone and even the burning urethra. Also, I had to remove my wisdom teeth and when I did, I was so occupied thinking about it that I forgot about urination and I noticed that I do not use the bathroom like I used to. But, I got back obsessing about it again and it got to a point that I urinate a lot of high volumes every hour. It comes suddenly and goes on its own. I use to get those episodes every few months when I had stress but since I got the fear it might never go away I get it almost daily now. I do not know what to do. Can anxiety cause polyuria like this clear urine when I am stressed?

Answer

Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary

Andrology Geriatrics Psychiatry Psychologist/ Counsellor Psychotherapy Sexology

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I read your query and understand your concerns.

First of all, I like to state that the stress and anxiety can affect almost every organ of the body and polyuria is not an exception. In other words, yes the stress can cause almost all the symptoms narrated in your query.

Secondly, I would like to assure you that this is only stress and nothing more. The statement is based on the following facts:

The urologist found nothing abnormal with you. In fact, they are well trained to detect the slightest of abnormality and are perfect in their work.
Fear of HIV is unfounded as there are no symptoms suggestive of HIV. It will not be wrong to state that burning urination and frequent urination is never the presenting complaints of HIV infection.
Your engagement with other activities of life almost caused a disappearance of symptoms. This can be explained on the basis of stress and no alternative explanation exists for the same.
Excessive concern has existed since an early age and this approves the reason for stress to some extent.

I hope this answers you.

For more information consult an andrologist online --> https://www.icliniq.com/ask-a-doctor-online/andrologist