Hematuria - Symptoms, causes and treatment

Hematuria isbloody urine. Blood in this urine can be caused by various diseases, ranging from from urinary tract infection, kidney disease,until prostate cancer.

Blood in the urine will change the color of the urine to reddish or slightly brown. Normal urine should not contain any blood, except in women who are menstruating.

Hematuria is generally painless, but if the blood appears as a clot, it can block the urinary tract and cause pain. To prevent dangerous complications, immediately consult a doctor if you experience bloody urine.

Symptoms of Hematuria

The main symptom of hematuria is a change in the color of the urine to pink, reddish, or brown. However, if the amount of blood that enters the urine is not large, the color of the urine may not change.

In addition to changes in urine color, hematuria can be accompanied by other symptoms, depending on the underlying cause. Accompanying symptoms that can appear include lower abdominal pain, frequent urination, or difficulty urinating.

When to go to the doctor

Some foods, such as beets and dragon fruit, can turn urine red or brown in color. But in contrast to hematuria, urine color changes due to food will disappear within a few days.

Consult a doctor if you experience a change in the color of your urine that you believe is not due to food or drink.

Causes of Hematuria

There are many causes of bloody urine. There are several conditions that can cause hematuria, namely:

  • Urinary tract infection.
  • Urinary stones, including bladder stones.
  • Kidney disease, such as kidney stones, inflammation (glomerulonephritis) or due to diabetes (diabetic nephropathy).
  • Enlarged prostate gland (BPH).
  • Kidney cancer, bladder cancer, or prostate cancer.
  • Blood disorders, such as hemophilia and sickle cell anemia.
  • Drugs, including penicillin, cyclophosphamide, and blood thinners, such as aspirin, warfarin, or heparin.

A person is more at risk of experiencing hematuria if he is experiencing an infectious disease or after doing strenuous exercise, for example after running a marathon.

Diagnosis of Hematuria

If the patient comes with complaints of bloody urine, the doctor will ask about the symptoms and diseases that have been suffered. The doctor will ask the color of the urine, the presence of blood clots, the frequency of urination, and the presence or absence of pain.

In addition, the doctor will also ask about diet, occupation, illnesses suffered by other family members, as well as medications that are being consumed.

After that, the doctor will perform a physical examination and take a urine sample for examination in the laboratory. A urine test can see the presence or absence of blood in the urine, as well as see if there is an infection or not, and whether there are crystals that form urinary tract stones.

If the results of the urine test show the presence of hematuria, the doctor will perform further tests to determine the cause. The follow-up examination can be in the form of:

  • Scan

    Scanning in patients with hematuria aims to check the condition of the urinary tract. Scans can be performed using an MRI, CT scan, or ultrasound.

  • Cystoscopy

    Cystoscopy using a special tool in the form of a tube with a camera at the end, which is inserted through the urinary opening, to see the condition of the urinary tract to the bladder in more detail.

Hematuria Treatment

To treat hematuria, the doctor will focus on treating the cause. Treatment of blood urine can be done by:

  • Giving antibiotics to treat urinary tract infections.
  • Administration of drugs to treat enlarged prostate gland.
  • ESWL or wave therapy to solve urinary tract stones.

The urologist can also perform other therapies, such as surgery, depending on the patient's condition and the cause of bloody urine.

Hematuria Prevention

It is difficult to prevent hematuria because the causes are diverse. But in general, the following precautions can be taken to avoid diseases that cause hematuria:

  • Maintain ideal body weight.
  • Exercise regularly.
  • Eat a balanced diet.
  • Reduce consumption of salty foods.
  • Reduce consumption of foods that contain lots of oxalate minerals, such as spinach or taro.
  • Drink enough water.
  • Not holding urine.
  • Wiping after defecating or urinating from front to back, especially for women.
  • Quit smoking.