How Detecting Invisible Blood In Your Urine Can Help Protect Against Serious Illnesses

 

Seeing blood in your urine can be terrifying. However, did you know that there are some cases where you have blood in your urine, but you cannot see it? In such situations, your urine usually contains red blood cells. But since they are so small, they can only be seen under a microscope. This type of condition is known as microscopic hematuria, which means invisible blood in your urine. The only way for one to detect unseen blood in their urine is to take a urine test either at the hospital or use a home test like the one available at IcleTest.

The at-home IcleTest urine test is particularly favorable for people who wish to test their urine regularly. This is because, with the IcleTest, an individual can test their urine from the comfort of their homes, at any time they choose. Which begs the question, why would one want to test their urine regularly for invisible blood?

Well, invisible blood is one of the earliest symptoms of several serious diseases. By catching this symptom early enough, one can get the right prognosis for their condition and get the right treatment early enough to assist in their recovery. Let us take a look at some serious illnesses, where testing your urine for invisible blood can prove fundamental in ensuring your recovery.

Cancer

When it comes to cancer, early detection is one of the key aspects of ensuring survival as it allows for early treatment. Blood in the urine is a common symptom of some cancers. However, by the time this blood becomes visible, the cancer is usually in the advanced stage. This is why testing for invisible blood is very important in protecting yourself against death by these cancers.

Take prostate cancer, for example. Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in men. The prostate is a walnut-shaped gland found below the bladder and surrounds the urethra. Prostate cancer develops when the cells in the prostate begin to develop rapidly and abnormally. This type of cancer is usually more common in older men than younger ones. If prostate cancer is caught early, the five-year survival rate is 100%. But if it is caught in its more advanced stage, then the survival rate drops to 30%.

This is why detecting invisible blood in your urine can help protect you from dying from this disease. You see, gross hematuria, which means visible blood in your urine is a common symptom of prostate cancer. This is because as cancer causes your cells to grow, the prostate becomes enlarged and presses on the urethra causing it to be irritated, which may lead to blood in your urine.

Unfortunately, by the time the blood becomes visible in your urine, your prostate cancer is usually advanced. However, invisible blood in your urine usually occurs in the early stages of cancer meaning one can get an early diagnosis and get treated early enough to increase their chances of survival.

Bladder cancer is another type of cancer that can greatly benefit from detecting invisible blood in your urine. Bladder cancer has been labeled the silent killer, mainly because it has barely any symptoms in its early stages. Bladder cancer occurs when cancerous tumors begin to grow in the bladder’s inner lining. These tumors can begin bleeding, which in turn can cause blood to appear in your urine. Sometimes invisible blood in your urine may be the only symptom one gets in the early stages of blood cancer.

Thus, detecting invisible blood in your urine may be the only chance one has to get their cancer treated in the early stages.

Kidney cancer is another had to detect cancer that can greatly benefit from detecting invisible blood in your urine. Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the kidney. Just like with the other aforementioned cancers, the kidney rarely has any symptoms in its first stages. However, microscopic hematuria is an early warning sign of kidney cancer. Detecting invisible in your urine will motivate your doctor to run further tests allowing them to detect kidney cancer early enough for treatment allowing for better chances of survival.

Glomerulonephritisee

Our kidneys help in filtering out waste and fluids from the blood. How they do this is through a collection of tiny blood vessels, known as glomeruli, found in the kidneys that have pores through which the blood is filtered. When the glomeruli become inflamed this condition is known as glomerulonephritis. This condition causes the glomeruli to stop functioning properly, which messes with the kidney’s filtering capabilities. This condition can either be acute meaning it develops quickly. Or chronic, meaning it develops over a long time.

Since glomerulonephritis messes with the kidney’s ability to filter out waste and fluid out of the blood. This causes protein and blood to enter the urine. Glomerulonephritis is a potentially fatal disease, especially if left untreated. However, detecting invisible blood in the urine can help get this disease diagnosed early enough to get treatment before kidney failure occurs.

Kidney Infection (Pyelonephritis)

A kidney infection occurs when bacteria enter either or both of a person's kidneys. This bacteria usually either comes from the urethra or the bladder. These two parts of the urinary system are quite prone to bacterial infection. Thus when these bacteria spread into the kidney, pyelonephritis occurs.

While a kidney infection is an easily treatable condition when left untreated. A kidney infection can cause irreparable damage to your kidneys or scarring. However, invisible blood in urine is a common early symptom of kidney infection. Thus, detecting microscopic blood in your urine can help get your kidney infection treated way before it leads to kidney failure.

The fact is, there are a great number of serious illnesses that have invisible blood in urine as one of their early symptoms. But since you cannot see microscopic blood in your urine, testing is your best option of detecting this symptom. If you do happen to detect invisible blood in your urine, you need to visit your doctor as soon as possible and get the condition diagnosed. While unseen blood in the urine doesn’t always mean a serious illness, you must visit your doctor each time.