ask: blood in urine

Hi Anon,

Blood in the urine is also known as Hematuria. Hematuria has many different causes.

• Blood in the urine can come from any condition that results in infection,inflammation, or injury to the urinary system.
• Typically, microscopic hematuria indicates damage to the upper urinary tract (kidneys), while visible blood indicates damage to the lower tract (ureters, bladder, or urethra). But this is not always the case.
• The most common causes in people younger than 40 years of age are kidney stones or urinary tract infections.
• These may also cause hematuria in older people, but cancers of the kidney, bladder, and prostate become a more common concern in people older than 40 years of age.
• Several conditions causing hematuria may exist at the same time.
• Some causes of hematuria are serious, others are not. Your health-care provider will perform tests to help tell the difference.

The well-known causes of blood in the urine include the following:

• Kidney stones
• Infections of the urinary tract (UTIs) or genitals
• Blockage of the urinary tract, usually the urethra: by a stone, a tumor, a narrowing of the opening (stricture), or a compression from surrounding structures
• Cancer of the kidney, bladder, or prostate
• Kidney disease
• Blood-clotting disorders
• Injury to the upper or lower urinary tract, as in a car accident or a bad fall (especially falls onto your back)
• Medications: antibiotics (for example, rifampin [Rifadin]), analgesics such asaspirin, anticoagulants (blood thinners such as warfarin, [Coumadin]),phenytoin (Dilantin), quinine (Quinerva, Quinite, QM-260)
• Benign (noncancerous) enlargement of the prostate known as benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), a common condition in older men
• Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and sickle cell anemia
• Viral infections
• Inflammation of the kidney, usually of unknown cause
• Strenuous exercise, especially running, results from repeated jarring of the bladder. In one study, 24% of runners who competed in an ultra-long-distance marathon had hematuria after the race. The hematuria disappeared within seven days. A 20% incidence has been found in marathon runners.

Sometimes no cause is found for blood in the urine.

Please make sure you see a doctor about the blood in your urine.

Best,

Rosa