Any nurses or people used to dealing with urine samples can help me please?

[Madeyemoodysmum]

Can anyone help me please. I'm not sure if I should bother with doctor.
My urine is showing as having leukocytes +70 on dipstick.

I tested it as my son been having issues with boys urine probs. so was just playing around really to check they worked ok. He is fine now. Wish I hadn't bothered as ignorance is bliss!

I have no other obvious symptoms. No burning. Urine is a nice pale colour. No smell or cloudiness.
I feel well.

I have been drinking nettle tea have taken a D mannose tablet and cranberry to try flush out what Evers causing the leukocytes

I would not worry normally but I'm going to USA in 12 days so don't want to leave something brewing. Should I bother doctor now at this stage???

Leucocytes are white cells which are an indicator for infection. If you have. other symptoms perhaps retest in a couple of days. Drink plenty of water and test early morning.

Without being too crude if you don't clean around the urethra prior to testing it can just be a contaminant as opposed to infection, particularly if nothing else is showing. The other things to look for would be protein, nitrites and specific Gravity oh and blood. Where I work we would not consider this a treatable infection at this stage without other symptoms.

So unless you develop fever, pain on passing urine, dark urine or back pain it's unlikely UTI. But, retest in a couple of days and seek advice from your practice nurse if you develop further symptoms. Hope this helps.

Thanks for reply. All the other things are fine and no change of colour but I think specific gravity changed on the stick but I'm not sure what's normal for that one? Should it be the same as the control?

Specific gravity tells you how concentrated your urine is, usually just tells you how well hydrated you are. Of more interest in a patient who has kidney problems etc but in an uncomplicated patient doesn't mean much. As previous poster mentioned, leucocytes are an indicator of infection. If you feel well otherwise, and I'm guessing you do as just tested for fun :) then drink plenty and don't worry too much about it. Bodies are quite good at healing themselves and fighting off minor infections (with leucocytes which then die and show up in the urine!)

Obviously if you are immunocompromised, pg, or have a chronic condition you would be wise to double check with somebody in RL.

Thanks for reply. I tested today after taking two d mannose tabs yesterday and sample now clear so all good!

The reviews on that stuff are excellent and now I can add to it and say they worked for me! No more WBC will keep testing over this weekend.

If you don't have any symptoms and the dipstick was negative for blood and nitrites I would ignore it. Leukocytes alone is not a good marker of infection.

Vaginal discharge is made of white blood cells. This often accounts for a higher white blood cell count in women's urine, in the absence of other indicatiors of infection. Hth :)

Thanks Sbear. I still feel OK and I've stopped testing now. a little bit of knowledge can be a bad thing!!!
Thanks to all that replied.