This article was originally published on April 12, 2016.As normal as it is to pee, anxiety about passing the same coworkers several times per day, every day on your way to the bathroom can build up fast. Is there such a thing as peeing too much?Yes there is, says Raquel B. Dardik, MD , a gynecologist at NYU Langone Medical Center. But usually, frequent peeing isn't a major cause for alarm.If you're concerned about how often you're feeling the need to go, the first thing to figure out is what "frequent" means for you, Dr. Dardik says: "Some people really do pee more often than others, but there's no specific quantity of how many times per hour or day is too much." Instead, she says a sudden change in your bathroom patterns is a more reliable sign that something is off.But even then, the urge to urinate is a surprisingly complex process, and it may just be that you've upped your water intake. Here, we cover a few of the possible reasons you have to pee so much — plus what to do about each.If you carry a water bottle with you everywhere out of habit (and you drink coffee, and you have a cocktail or two at happy hour), you might not realize just how often you're filling your tank. "One of the biggest culprits is actually a good, healthy habit: drinking water ," says Dr. Dardik. "Young women have healthy kidneys that filter water very well." There's nothing wrong with constant sipping, but you do have to accept that frequent bathroom trips are the price. Think of it as your reminder to get up from your desk every once in awhile.What if you're dealing with that dreaded sudden increase in bathroom trips? The most likely culprit, especially among sexually active women in their teens and 20s, is a urinary tract infection (also called a bladder infection), Dr. Dardik explains. These usually come with other telltale signs, such as pain or burning during urination, so most women seek treatment fairly quickly."But if you have a mild bladder infection," Dr. Dardik explains, "you might [only] feel like you have to go to the bathroom a lot more than you used to, and not quite realize that it's because bacteria are irritating the lining of your bladder."Luckily, mild or severe, these infections are usually easily treated with a round of antibiotics. You can also help prevent them by remembering to pee right after sex.Normally, when your bladder gets full, the muscles get stretched, and receptors in the muscle signal your brain that you need to pee. But in an overactive bladder, those receptors initiate the signal in response to the smallest stretch, even if your bladder is nowhere near full, Dr. Dardik explains. And it's extra frustrating because "a lot of times, you'll feel like you have to go that second," she adds.Researchers are still working out what, specifically, causes the bladder to react this way, and the confusion stems partly from the fact that the condition can be so individual. "For some people, it's an 'all the time' type of problem," says Dr. Dardik. "But for other people, it's a milder problem that gets exacerbated by other things, such as stress."If your doc thinks you might have overactive bladder, she may order tests to rule out other causes. If it turns out you do have it, she can prescribe treatments, including medications or behavioral changes such as monitoring your fluid intake and doing kegel exercises (a stronger pelvic floor seems to help), depending on the severity of your symptoms. If needed, you might be referred to a specialist.