The abrupt development of blood in the urine is called hematuria.
This is a quick guide for men and women who have noticed blood in their urine and help to navigate the possible causes of that blood being present. First, blood in urine is a common symptom of plenty of common medical issues that patients face. It is referred to as “hematuria” and can show up in all shades of red: from light pink to dark maroon. If blood clots are also present, they may show up looking more like coffee grounds.
In any case, diagnoses will require a urine sample to be taken and examined by your doctor. The most common reasons for blood to show up in urine would be kidney stones, urinary tract infection (UTI) or problems occurring within the prostate. Less commonly, a more serious issue is at hand.
Easily identifiable reasons for blood in urine to appear:
- Recent, high intensity exercise
- Recent catheterization
The abrupt development of blood in the urine is certainly an alarming and frightening symptom. All kinds of worrisome thoughts run through the patient’s mind and usually results in initiating a broad search for the answers on the Internet. Most of the time the reason for the blood is not serious or life-threatening and could simply just be caused by a bladder or urinary tract infection. In office, I will give a quick overview of the reason for blood in the urine in the evaluation that is necessary to make sure that it’s not serious.
There are many conditions that cause blood in the urine and the most common one is a bladder infection. If you have blood in the urine and are having burning with urination, frequency, urgency, bladder pain, low back pain or a combination of some of the aforementioned symptoms it’s probably just a bladder infection. These infections with blood in the urine can usually be cured with a simple round of antibiotics. Consult with your primary care doctor or go to Urgent Care to get evaluated and treated. Untreated, this infection can spread up into the kidneys and cause a more serious infection. Kidney infections are often associated with fever, chills and severe flank pain which needs to be treated before the development of sepsis, a life-threatening situation.
Blood in the urine that is not associated with any burning, hurting or other symptoms mentioned above needs to have a urological consultation. Even if it only happens once, it’s important to be evaluated. Kidney or bladder stones (but also kidney or bladder tumors) can be the source of that blood in the urine. Even if you’re on blood thinners this still needs to be evaluated.
Your medical doctor, or possibly an urgent care, may refer you to me for evaluation of blood that you could not see. That is called microscopic hematuria and basically means that there are just a few blood cells in the urine that only shows up when we look at the urine under a microscope. This finding also needs a thorough evaluation for the same reasons as above. Most of the time we don’t find anything serious, but often enough we do and it requires a full evaluation.
In summary, blood in the urine is a symptom that needs to be evaluated and you certainly don’t need to think the worst right off the bat. If you think you need to come see me, make an appointment and I’ll be happy to help navigate to the source of your case.