• Question: why should you see a doctor if blood is released in urine? does it mean your kidneys are faulty?

    Asked by starlumsden to Derek, Elaine, Heather, Keith, Bimpe on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Heather Eyre

      Heather Eyre answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Blood in your urine can come from more the one source and it usually isn’t from the kidneys.
      Most of the time the blood has come from the bladder or urethra (the tube that lets urine out of the bladder), which can be caused by infection. A kidney stone traveling down the urethra and ureter (a tube that connects the kidney to the bladder) can also cause blood in the urine.

      Sometimes the source of the blood can be the kidney, and if it is it can mean that the filtering pat of the kidney is leaky and letting out more than it should. This can be really bad.

      It can be short term if caused by inflammation (swelling) and infection and the kidney can recover from this. If the kidney is damaged and the filtering part of the kidney can’t stop blood getting into the urine then yes the kidneys would be faulty and you might need a transplant or dialysis (which is where a machine does the filtering for you).

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