Protein in urine

[aliphil]

I am 38 weeks pg and saw the mw this morning. Apparently there was protein in my urine sample - they wrote down the level was +2, whatever that means - and also leucocytes, and I asked if that was bad and she said, "Well, it's not good." I had to do another sample and have it sent off to the lab for checking. She put it through as routine rather than urgent but I am still in a bit of a panic. I know I should have asked more but I was worrying too much about having to produce another sample (can't pee on demand). Blood pressure and everything else was normal. How worried should I be?

This is quite common. It doesn't necessarily mean anything worrying, especially since your BP was normal. It happened to me actually, at about 25 weeks. I immediately worried about pre-eclampsia, but the midwife was not concerned since BP was normal.

Protein can be caused by a UTI which will be flagged by further testing. Also if you've not had much fluid before your appointment, especially if it's a morning one, that can also cause protein.

All my urine checks have been normal since that one at 25 wks (which was +2)

Does that help? My midwife didn't give me much info - I came and asked here too!

Thank you! I don't think it's a UTI as no pain or other symptoms, but it could be lack of fluid as I overslept and was in a rush and had trouble producing a sample. I drank two pints of water before producing the second sample so hopefully that will be clear!

Fingers crossed! It could indicate the beginning of a UTI, you don't always get terrible symptoms. Apparently it can also happen due to the increased work load on the kidneys during pregnancy.

Just to say I had the same thing last week. 38 weeks and my urine sample showed protein in it. Midwife sent it off and asked if I'd had any pain when weeing etc. as protein can be mean a water infection etc. I said no but she also commented that my urine was quite dark which meant I wasn't drinking enough water (it was still lovely sunny weather then).Midwife said even if I didn't have any symptons if the result came back that an infection was there I needed to go to doctors adn they would give me a course of antibiotics to clear it up. Got the results this week and there was no infection (got result from doctors as happened to be in there with ear ache) and doctor said everything was fine, so I wouldn't worry too much. Its just better to be safe than sorry with these things.

I had this recently. MW asked if I thought I might have a UTI but no other symptoms. Mine was quite fear (I drink tons) but didn't produce a huge amount. I had to pee in one of the really small medical tubes rather than the big cups they have at my MLU. Anyway MW said it might be that the sample was 'contaminated' with vaginal discharge (very likely as I struggled to get it in the pot tmi!) Maybe the same with you?

I haven't heard anything back, so I don't think it can be a major problem!

No news is good news aliphil Hope all remains typical for the rest of your pregnancy.

I've had protein in my last two samples, mw asked about possible uti but I've had no other symptoms. If your having more discharge this can increase the amount of protein in your urine. This is the case for me sorry if tmi so they not concerned..