Is it abnormal for a male in his 20's to have to wake up to urinate once or twice every night?
A person who finds themselves getting up in the night to pass urine will usually also pass urine frequently during the day (though not always, as they may not be able to eg if their jobs do not allow them time to visit the bathroom).Causes of urinary frequency can be broadly divided into four categories:1. You are making large volumes of urine.2. You are not successfully emptying your bladder.3. The bladder is not able to hold large volumes at a time.4. The need to micturate frequently is psychological.The reasons for making large volumes of urine could be due to increased volume of fluid intake (ie drinking too much liquid), or osmotic diuresis (ie loss of large amounts of solutes (eg salts when diuretic medications are taken, sugar in diabetes, calcium in hypercalcaemia etc)). There are other medical conditions such, as diabetes insipidus, that cause large volumes of dilute urine to be passed.Inability to completely empty the bladder causes it to become (and therefore feel) full frequently, creating a need to pass urine often. Causes include prostatic enlargement by both benign and malignant means and bladder neck/urethral narrowing (due to strictures, tumours, clots, stones etc). These are much more common in older men, but can affect younger people and children too.Inability to hold urine in larger quantities could be due to mechanical obstructions (eg pregnant uterus, constipation, pelvic masses) or inflammation (in urinary tract infections or interstitial/chemical cystitis). Alternatively it could be due to detrusor instability (more common in middle-aged/older women) - a medical term for the bladder-wall muscle being overactive.If you are an otherwise healthy young male, who does not drink excessive fluids or diuretic agents (like caffeine) shortly before bed, then I would suggest that waking up every night, and often more than once, probably is abnormal. Most people in this category would get up very seldom.