Blood in urine, but no infection. Fast tracked. Should we be worried?

[Zara85]

My DM (Early 50s) has been complaining of a pain in her side for the last 4 months. It gets worse every day.
She was sent for a bladder ultrasound and an xray of that area which were all clear. However she has been unable to continue in the pain she was in so she went back to the docs Friday who did a urine sample. They found blood in it so it was sent off and she had a blood test. They've called her in this morning (2working days later) and said that she needs to be fasttracked for a camera into her bladder as the urine and blood tests showed no signs of infection or stones which aparently is a cause for concern.
How worried should we be? The quickest appointment at the hospital was nye. I feel sick :(

It's her age as well see. It doesn't sound great does it? Be reassured though that the NHS are marvelous and WILL get to the bottom of it. It sounds kidney related though but how odd there's no infection. Fingers crossed for you that it will be easily resolved. Good luck!

They have a set of symptoms that require a fast track referral as they could indicate something serious. It doesn't mean that's the most likely explanation, but it's obviously better to rule the worst case scenarios out first. Hopefully it will turn out to be something harmless

I had similar symptoms to this. It’s not necessarily something terrible. I had pain in lower side, blood in urine, etc. no infection, etc. the blood got so bad I thought I had cervical cancer.

It turned out that I was dehydrated and my concentrated urine was turning into crystals and scratching my bladder, hence the blood.

I started drinking more water and it completely stopped.

Might be worth considering?

It's only natural to feel worried, OP, but bladder cancer in women in their 50s is very rare. Blood in urine without infection showing up in tests is very common - hence anyone over 40 gets fast-tracked. The vast majority don't have sinister causes.

If she is post-menopausal it could be vaginal or urological atrophy (sorry, I know this is your mum we're talking about!) and that might not show up on the cystoscopy so it's worth her mentioning to the GP afterwards and they can treat her for that.

Also, is she having a kidney scan? My NHS trust fast track for that if there is unexplained blood in urine.

*I meant urogenital/bladder atrophy not urological atrophy

Hi OP,
My husband had this (late 30s). It turned out to have been a kidney stone that he passed without seeing it. This then led to further investigation and he was found to have hyperparathyroidism (nothing to do with your thyroid).
This is when the parathyroid glands in your neck allow too much calcium to get into your bloodstream and this causes aches and pains, tiredness, and often kidney stones. Has she had a calcium blood test? If this is even slightly raised it could be this.
My husband had the defective gland out (everyone has 4 of them) and it’s completely solved the problem. Apparently it’s quite common particularly in women of 50+
Hope it’s all ok

@themythicalchicken that's interesting to know, how was that diagnosed? She could well be dehydrated as she only ever drinks hot drinks! As in literally never ever see her with a water or squash.

@muir23 I'm not si4e on calcium blood test, they did give her a pretty thorough mot with her bloods by all accounts.

@athen she is post menopausal so I will also get her too look into that too :)

Thanks so much for responding everyone. I will report back once we know more.

My dm has this and had the scan. Still no cause found and no trace of bladder cancer.

@haggis that's really reassuring. I'm glad your mum was okay :)

If you search the threads on here there are hundreds on this very topic. I've been there in the same position as your mum and had all the tests and there was no cause for concern. Urologist told me it's very common to have invisible blood in urine with no particular cause. A certain percentage of the population just do.

She will have been fast tracked because she is a woman of a certain age, no other reason. She will have a cystoscopy which is the gold standard test to rule out bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is very rare for someone of your mums age, especially if she doesn't smoke or has ever worked with chemicals. It's far more likely to be an infection that just doesn't show up on a dipstick test (as mine was I'm sure).

It's much more of a concern if the blood is visible in the toilet bowl.

I realise that won't stop you worrying until she's had all the tests but hope it puts your mind at rest somewhat.

@tanfastic yes it definately does put my mind at rest a little , thank you.
She does smoke, she has smoked 20-30 a day for almost 40 years :-( I would give anything for her to stop.

It's still very unlikely to be anything to worry about. The fact she's had a pain in her side makes me think it's kidney related. Probably an infection or small stone.

My mum also smokes so I totally get your worry.