Voiding pattern of healthy Taiwanese women.
OBJECTIVE
Few studies have examined the voiding pattern of healthy females, despite the importance of such research for diagnosing abnormal voiding behavior. This study investigates the voiding behavior of healthy women in Taiwan.


METHODS
68 healthy women, aged 19-66 years and claiming to void normally were enrolled. Twenty-two of the subjects (32.4%) were postmenopausal. Each woman completed a 3-day voiding diary. The diary recorded urine volume, voiding frequency, urine volume per voiding for the whole day (24 h), and urine volume during both daytime and nighttime. Age and various other voiding parameters were correlated, and the voiding patterns were compared between premenopausal and postmenopausal women.


RESULTS
All women voided 7.34 +/- 1.63 times daily. Higher age was associated with higher whole day and daytime voiding frequency. Nocturia was not common for the group as a whole, with a mean nocturnal voiding of 0.25 times per night. However, higher age was significantly associated with a higher nighttime voiding frequency. A significantly positive correlation was also observed between age and whole day urine volume. Compared with regularly menstruating women, postmenopausal women had a significantly higher whole day and nighttime voiding frequency. Menopause and age both independently affect voiding parameters after multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study provide invaluable baseline data on female voiding behavior. Additionally, this study found that for healthy women, age and menstruation status significantly affect voiding patterns. Analysis of female voiding behavior thus should consider these two factors.
Huang
Yi-Hsiu
YH
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Lin
Alex T L
AT
Chen
Kuang-Kuo
KK
Chang
Luke S
LS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D013624:Taiwan; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000502:physiology*; D014563:Urodynamics / Q000502:physiology*