Indeed, although I would suggest that needing to get up in the night to pee suggests there might be a problem that warrants investigation.
Needing to get up during the night to pee shouldn't be
disregarded as normal or just a consequence of age. Normally the body operates mechanisms that slow down production of urine and make it more concentrated so that we don't have our sleep broken.
It is certainly true that the commonest cause of being woken in the night to pee is age - the bladder and associated muscles weaken. It is possible to do exercises to strengthen these, they are called pelvic floor muscles. But there are underlying health issues that can also cause this problem, so it is important to have these eliminated.
That is particularly the case in men because night-time peeing is one of the common symptoms of prostate problems. Again, the commonest of these is harmless in itself - many men's prostates just get bigger with age. This is called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). It is harmless in itself, but may need treating in that it can cause annoying symptoms (frequent and difficult urination, especially at night) which can in turn lead to urine retention - which leads to infections. Ultimately it can block the urethra, which is a medical emergency (and extremely painful) though fortunately this is rare.
But malignant conditions can also cause
identical symptoms, only a medical professional can dianose this. Prostate cancer causes similar enlargement - fortunately such cancers tend to be both slow growing and are unlikely to spread. In elderly men they are often left untreated, or growth is slowed with hormones, the aim to establish "watchful waiting" and control symptoms. This is because you are likely to die of old age before the cancer becomes significant. However, there are agressive forms, so again it is vital to see a doctor.
Usually the first thing to be done is a DRE - Digital Rectal Exam. This is not particularly pleasant, it involves the doctor feeling the prostate directly, in order to determine whether it has suspiscious charateristics, such as unusual size, is hard rather than soft or has noticeable lumps. There is also a blood test which looks for PSA - a chemical in the blood that can indicate the presence of cancer. Unfortunately this test is not overly reliable, giving both false negatives and positives. Men with high PSA may be healthy and undergo undue worry and unecessary testing, whilst men with low PSA may not be clear. For this reason, there is no PSA screening program.
The prostate is unique to men, so this is one worry women don;t have. On the other hand, they are much more likely to get UTI's. You win some, you lose some
!