Inflammation In The Kidney
There are various conditions which can lead to inflammation in your kidneys. These can then result in blood in your urine, which is usually only found when a dipstick test of your urine is performed. This inflammation of the kidneys is called glomerulonephritis. Other symptoms such as tiredness and swelling around your eyes and legs can also sometimes occur.
The inflammation leads to glomerulonephritis which is usually due to a problem with your bodys immune system. This can sometimes be triggered by an infection. Glomerulonephritis is the most common cause of blood in the urine of children and young adults. However, it can occur in people of any age. See the separate leaflet called Glomerulonephritis for more information.
How To Feel Better
If your healthcare professional prescribes you antibiotics:
- Take antibiotics exactly as your healthcare professional tells you.
- Do not share your antibiotics with others.
- Do not save antibiotics for later. Talk to your healthcare professional about safely discarding leftover antibiotics.
Drink plenty of water or other fluids. Your healthcare professional might also recommend medicine to help lessen the pain or discomfort. Talk with your healthcare professional if you have any questions about your antibiotics.
What Causes Bleeding During A Uti
When you have a UTI, the bacteria infect the lining of your urinary tract. This leads to inflammation and irritation, causing red blood cells to leak into your urine.
If theres a tiny amount of blood in your urine, it wont be visible to the naked eye. This is called microscopic hematuria. A doctor will be able to see the blood when they look at your urine sample under a microscope.
But if theres enough blood to change the color of your urine, you have whats called gross hematuria. Your pee might look red, pink, or brown like cola.
If you menstruate, you might wonder if your bloody urine is caused by a UTI or menstruation.
Along with urinary bleeding, UTIs and periods share symptoms like:
- lower back pain
- abdominal or pelvis pain
To determine which one you have, consider your overall symptoms. Youre likely menstruating if you have:
- bloating or weight gain
These symptoms arent typically associated with UTIs. Plus, if you have your period, you wont see blood only when you pee. Youll also have red or darker clumps of blood continuously accumulating on your underwear with menstruation.
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Recurrent Vaginal Yeast Infection
If you have symptoms of a vaginal yeast infection and have been diagnosed and treated by your doctor for this in the past, you may want to try treating it at home. You can use an over-the-counter medicine to treat your symptoms. Examples of medicines are tioconazole , clotrimazole , and miconazole .
If your symptoms dont improve with home treatment, contact your doctor. Vaginal symptoms that may be related to another type of vaginal infection or a cervical infection need to be checked.
If you are pregnant or if you take the blood-thinning medicine warfarin, talk to your doctor before using an over-the-counter medicine for a yeast infection. If you take warfarin and use an over-the-counter medicine, you may have increased bruising and abnormal bleeding.
What Are The Symptoms Of Uti
Most UTIs occur in the lower urinary tract, i.e., the bladder and the urethra. These UTIs are commonly called cystitis or urethritis. The most frequent symptoms of UTI are:
- Burning with urination
- Urinary frequency and urgency
- Pain in the lower abdomen
With some forms of UTI, blood may be seen after urinating and wiping. This may be just some pink staining when wiping after urination or you may see a toilet bowl that looks like its full of blood.
Women with upper UTIs occasionally have burning with urination, urgency, and frequency, but systemic symptoms like fever, chills, nausea, and vomiting are more common. Women often have back or flank pain, high fever, and shaking chills. Women with upper tract infections feel truly ill.
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What Causes Urinary Tract Infections
Normal urine is sterile and contains fluids, salts, and waste products. It does not contain bacteria, viruses, or fungi. A UTI occurs when germs, most often bacteria from the digestive tract, get into the opening of the urethra and start to multiply.
Most UTIs are caused by E. coli bacteria, which normally live in the colon.
What Investigations May Be Advised
The investigations you may need usually depend on many different factors, such as if you have other symptoms, if you have any other illnesses or conditions and your age.
It is likely that you will need to provide a sample of urine which will be sent to the local laboratory to be tested for infection. You may have blood tests and X-rays or scans.
A cystoscopy may be performed to assess your bladder. Having a cystoscopy entails a doctor or nurse looking into your bladder with a special thin telescope called a cystoscope. The cystoscope is passed into your bladder via your outlet for your urine . A cystoscopy which is done just to look into your bladder is usually carried out under local anaesthetic.
More details about the different tests can be found in the separate individual condition leaflets, mentioned above.
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Urinary Tract Infections In Men
Men can get UTIs, particularly if they have trouble with urine flow. Older men who experience prostatitis are at a higher risk. If the bladder is not emptying properly, the build up ofurine makes it more difficult to cure the infection.
A small number of young men may get a UTI. In males, this is usually the result of a sexually transmitted disease.
Things You Can Do Yourself
To help ease symptoms of a urinary tract infection :
- takeparacetamolup to 4 times a day to reduce pain and a high temperature for people with a UTI, paracetamol is usually recommended over NSAIDs such as ibuprofen or aspirin
- you can give childrenliquid paracetamol
- rest and drink enough fluids so you pass pale urine regularly during the day
- avoid having sex
Some people take cystitis sachets or cranberry drinks and products every day to prevent UTIs from happening, which may help. However, there’s no evidence they help ease symptoms or treat a UTI if the infection has already started.
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Silent Utis: How They Start
That weekend was supposed to be so fun. I always looked forward to hosting my grandchildren, who lived 45 miles away, overnight. But this time my extreme fatigue stole most of the energy and joy from our precious time together. The strange thing is, it wasnt the I probably did too much yesterday kind of fatigue. It was concerning, Mashunkashey said. That heavy blanket of fatigue covered me the rest of the week. All I wanted to do was lie down, and that just wasnt like me Im not a napping kind of person. She visited her doctor to ask about the exhaustion, but her doctor couldnt provide an answer.
This wasnt like other health issues Id had in the past, though. Years earlier I was prone to urinary tract infections. I once had six in the span of six months. I dreaded that unmistakable backache, the painful urination, and the urgency to pee, not to mention the doctors appointments and prescription co-pays for all those antibiotics. Thankfully, I seemed to have outgrown UTIs, but this new health complaint was such a mystery It worried me, Mashunkashey said.
Living With Urinary Tract Infections
If you have 3 or more urinary tract infections each year, your doctor may want you to begin a preventive antibiotic program. A small dose of an antibiotic taken every day helps to reduce the number of infections. If sexual intercourse seems to cause infections for you, your doctor many suggest taking the antibiotic after intercourse.
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Drinking Plenty Of Fluids
While youre being treated for a UTI, drink lots of fluids. This will make you pee more often, which flushes bacteria out of your body. The best choice is water.
To avoid worsening your symptoms, limit beverages that irritate the urinary tract. These drinks include:
- carbonated drinks, like soda
- artificially-sweetened beverages
Many people think cranberry juice can help, but the research is lacking. A 2012 review of studies determined that cranberry juice cant prevent or resolve UTIs.
Is It Possible To Prevent Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections With A Vaccine
Currently, there are no commercially available vaccines for UTIs, either recurrent or first-time infections. One of the problems in developing a vaccine is that so many different organisms can cause infection a single vaccine would be difficult to synthesize to cover them all. Even with E. coli causing about most infections, the subtle changes in antigenic structures that vary from strain to strain further complicate vaccine development even for E. coli. Researchers are still investigating ways to overcome the problems in UTI vaccine development.
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How Common Are Urinary Tract Infections
Urinary tract infections are very common, occurring in 1 out of 5 women sometime in their lifetime. Though UTIs are common in women, they can also happen to men, older adults and children. One to 2% of children develop urinary tract infections. Each year, 8 million to 10 million visits to doctors are for urinary tract infections.
How Is The Cause Of Hematuria Diagnosed
If youre seeing your doctor for hematuria, theyll ask you about the amount of blood and when you see it during urination. Theyll want to know how often you urinate, any pain youre experiencing, if you see blood clots, and what medications youre taking.
Your doctor will then give you a physical examination and collect a sample of your urine for testing. The analysis of your urine can confirm the presence of blood and detect bacteria if an infection is the cause.
Your doctor may order imaging tests such as a CT scan, which uses radiation to create an image of your body.
Another possible test your doctor may want to do is a cystoscopy. This involves using a small tube to send a camera up your urethra and into your bladder. With the camera, your doctor can examine the interior of your bladder and urethra to determine the cause of your hematuria.
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What Is The Urinary Tract
The urinary tract makes and stores urine, one of the bodys liquid waste products. The urinary tract includes the following parts:
- Kidneys: These small organs are located on back of your body, just above the hips. They are the filters of your body removing waste and water from your blood. This waste becomes urine.
- Ureters: The ureters are thin tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to your bladder.
- Bladder: A sac-like container, the bladder stores your urine before it leaves the body.
- Urethra: This tube carries the urine from your bladder to the outside of the body.
Treatment For Urinary Tract Obstruction
What is the most typical urinary tract obstruction treatment? The main goal of an obstructive uropathy treatment is to remove the obstruction from the blocked ureters.
Here are a few of the ways in which this is done:
Obstructive uropathy treatment will also depend on the cause of obstruction. From a natural perspective, saw palmetto, pumpkin seed oil, nettle root, rye pollen extract, and beta-sitosterol are frequently named remedies that may reduce the symptoms of obstructive uropathy caused by an enlarged prostate.
Cranberry extract and uva ursi are herbal remedies used in the treatment of obstructive uropathy caused by kidney stones or bladder infections.
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Symptoms Of Urinary Tract Infections
The symptoms of an infection in your upper urinary tract are different from symptoms of infection in your lower urinary tract .
However, in some cases you may notice the symptoms of both, as one can spread to the other.
Symptoms of a UTI are similar to those of many other conditions and dont necessarily mean you have an infection.
When Symptoms Become More Severe
If symptoms gradually worsen, this may be a sign of a kidney infection. Along with the traditional UTI symptoms of frequent and painful urination, these additional symptoms will occur.
- Fever and Chills
- Pain In the Lower Back
- You will experience mild to severe pain on one of both sides of the lower back depending on where the infection has spread.
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Kidney And Urinary Tract Infections
Urinary tract infections are one of the most common causes for blood in the urine. Most are due to bacteria which enter through the urethra and rise up to the bladder or even higher. It can even reach the kidneys. It is therefore known as an ascending infection. Sometimes bacteria in the bloodstream can lodge in the kidney or urinary tract. A common source of bacteria is from the rectum but a host of bacteria can cause UTIs, including sexually transmitted infections. Most infections are limited to the bladder.
Remember These Things Too:
- Urinary tract bleeds can be caused by , infection, or injury. Most kidney bleeds happen without a known cause.
- The pain often starts in your back and can be either constant or come and go. The pain may move to the front and down your leg.
- If clots are not flushed out of the kidneys and ureters, the clots may stop the urine flow and lead to kidney failure.
- should never be taken during kidney bleeds since it will prevent clots from dissolving.
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Frequent Urination With Urging
Frequent urination is one of the most common symptoms of a UTI. It does not mean that you have a full bladder in every instance but may pass even small amounts of urine repeatedly within a short period of time. Another characteristic symptom is that you do not feel that you emptied your bladder properly despite urinating so often. You may even urge to pass urine constantly. While it is normal for some people to urinate more than others, passing small amounts of urine repeatedly and usually more than 8 times in a day can be a sign of a UTI.
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Blood Clots In Urine In Men
If blood clots are present somewhere along the male urinary tract, the color of a mans urine may change to pink or even become red an alarming symptom that will certainly cause men to be concerned. What should you know about this alarming symptom, its possible causes, and what should you do next?
First off, discolored urine is often not an isolated symptom. Passing blood clots through the urine can further cause pain. The pain can be localized to a specific spot, and providing details regarding this pain can help a physician to make the correct diagnosis and determine the course of treatment.
Also, a man experiencing the symptom of blood-tainted urine, as manifested through a pink to red color, should first try to determine whether that red color of the urine in fact comes from blood, since certain medications and foods like beet root can also cause urine to turn red, in which case there is no cause for worry at all. Nevertheless, it is advisable to seek medical attention in the event that you notice the occurrence of pink or red urine, as it can be a sign of a serious medical condition.
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Understanding Urine And The Bladder
Your kidneys make urine continuously. A trickle of urine is constantly passing to your bladder down the tubes which run from the kidneys to the bladder. You make different amounts of urine, depending on how much you drink, eat and sweat.
Your bladder is made of muscle and stores the urine. It expands like a balloon as it fills with urine. The outlet for urine is normally kept closed. This is helped by the muscles below your bladder that surround and support your urethra .
When a certain volume of urine is in your bladder, you become aware that your bladder is becoming full. When you go to the toilet to pass urine, your bladder muscle squeezes and your urethra and pelvic floor muscles relax to allow the urine to flow out.
Who Is More Likely To Develop Hematuria
People who are more likely to develop hematuria may
- have an enlarged prostate
- take certain medications, including blood thinners, aspirin and other pain relievers, and antibiotics
- do strenuous exercise, such as long-distance running
- have a bacterial or viral infection, such as streptococcus or hepatitis
- have a family history of kidney disease
- have a disease or condition that affects one or more organs
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Uti Signs And Symptoms In Childrenare Different
UTIs are the second most common type of infection in children, behind ear infections. Unfortunately, early symptoms of UTI in young children are not always apparent. And sometimes there are no UTI symptoms at all, or your child is simply unable to articulate the UTI symptoms he or she is experiencing. When it comes to babies under 2 years old, parents need to tune in to these signs of a urinary tract infection:
- Fever A fever of 104°F or higher may be the sole symptom in babies. Its also the most common symptom of UTI during babys first two years.
- Jaundice Up to 18 percent of babies with prolonged or worsening jaundice also have UTIs. When jaundice occurs one full year after birth, its a strong indicator of UTI.
- Vomiting or diarrhea
- Crying while urinating
Meanwhile, older children generally have similar symptoms to adults, including urgency, cloudy urine, and pain during urination. For children whove already been toilet trained, bed-wetting is also a sign of a UTI.