Transcript of Video
In the last several years the general public has become more aware of how common sleep apnea is as a health problem. One thing that people aren’t necessarily aware of is that sleep apnea can cause nighttime urinary symptoms. Sometimes this gets so bad that you can even get bedwetting just as a result of sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea can also contribute to fatigue that sometimes we wind up seeing patients for low testosterone as a result. It can also cause frequent awakening at night and needing to visit the toilet to urinate. When a patient knows that they have had a diagnosis of sleep apnea, and they have urinary symptoms at night, first thing that we determine is are they using their sleep apnea management plan as directed. Some people will be given a CPAP machine, or other ways to manage the sleep apnea, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re using it.
If they’re using it on a regular basis and the rest of their sleep apnea symptoms are relieved, but the urinary symptoms remain, then we have additional treatment options, as well as evaluation options that we can utilize. When bothersome nighttime symptoms remain despite adequate relief of sleep apnea, there are voiding diaries that we can use, where we have patients log when the symptoms occur, how severe they are, other things that are going on in the day.
And that may yield a cause of why the urinary symptoms remain. There are medications that we can use to help with the nighttime symptoms. And sometimes we even have to do more anatomical studies to evaluate the condition of the bladder and urethra to make sure that there’s not a secondary problem contributing to the bladder dysfunction. So if you’re continuing to have bothersome urinary symptoms at night, please give our office a call, or contact or office to arrange an appointment so we can provide you with additional care.
