Full bladder wakes women more often than thought

Two in three women over age 40 wake up at least once each night because of a full bladder, and nearly half make two or more nighttime trips to the bathroom. But only a quarter of women who get up to urinate during the night say they are bothered by having to do so.

That's the finding from a survey of more than 2,000 northern California women ages 40 and older. Factors that increased the likelihood that a woman woke at night to urinate included older age, past hysterectomy, hot flashes, and use of vaginal estrogen. However, the late-night bathroom breaks weren't caused by an overactive bladder or stress incontinence. The results were published in the January 2015 issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.