What is the likelihood that exercise is causing blood in my urine?

June 24, 2005 8:04 PM

I was wondering if any MeFites had ever experienced blood in their urine as a result of exercise.

I'm male, 38, and a tad obese. My urine today (Friday) was much darker and redder than usual. IANAD, but based on the color I would say there is blood in my urine. I had a urinalysis and prostate exam 3 months ago as part of a physical, and there was nothing unusual.

The only thing I have done differently recently is that I had two sessions with a personal trainer recently, one hour Wednesday and one hour Thursday. I haven't exercised in about 20 years. I googled "blood in urine" and found exercise could be a cause.

But they real reason I am concerned is that my (and fixedgear's) dad had bladder cancer. Yes, I am going to see my doctor about this.

Anybody else ever have a similar experience?

posted by Fat Guy to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

It's never happened to me personally, but it's not uncommon.

Definitely get it checked out though, as it's what we call a 'diagnosis of exclusion.' That's a fancy way of saying we like to feel sure that there's no nasty reasons for it to have happened, before we ascribe it to this benign thing called exercise induced hematuria.

Exercise induced hematuria is thought to be caused by a floppy bladder posterior wall banging against the anterior, muscular trigone repeatedly, causing a sort of bruising. Bruised mucous membrane like bladder wall leaks blood as part of the bruising process. Support for this theory is found in the observed fact that exercising with a half-full (half-empty?) bladder tends to decrease or eliminate the bleeding.

Don't worry, just let the doctors do their thing.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:24 PM on June 24, 2005

I pissed blood as a result of a cross-country motorcycle ride on a hardtail.

Kidneys and/or bladder (was never sure which) couldn't take the shaking.


So, um, what kind of execises you doing?
posted by sourwookie at 12:24 AM on June 25, 2005

I've had exercise-induced hematuria (from jogging). I remember the doc (at the university medical practice) saying that he saw quite a lot of it in young men. Of course, he did a urine test anyway. I think he described it as being a bit like a nosebleed, like the exercise had just broken a blood vessel somewhere in the urinary system.

Probably not relevant, but I've also twice experienced quite copious bleeding after sex in a position which I will not specify here but needless to say will not be trying again. I don't know what this means except that I guess it is quite easy to bust blood vessels down there.
posted by teleskiving at 2:27 AM on June 25, 2005

Best wishes for an uneventful medical evaluation. I went through something similar very recently.

An abdominal/pelvic CT, urinanalysis, cytology and culture, comprehensive bloodwork (everything from renal function to coagulopathy) and a cystoscopy should rule out the majority of big scary things.

FWIW I ended up with "idiopathic, so quit worrying" and "well, if you REALLY want, we could do a renal biopsy..."
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 5:28 AM on June 25, 2005

I had that after running my first 50km run. Now, because I trained for some months for this ultramarathon, and was a member of the ULTRA discussion group on a listserv, the possibility of this was not unknown to me. Previous AskMe posters explained how this pinkness happens. Still it's a bit unnerving to see dark yellow/pink urine staring back at me from the bowl.

But my advice to you, Fat Guy, is to DRINK WATER! Lots and lots of water - esp now that you have a personal trainer (good news - have one too, this is an excellent way to get in shape)

Try this - one litre before exercise, one litre after, one litre while you exercise. Then two more litres the rest of the day. Your urine should have little colour if at all - except when you first go in the morning.
posted by seawallrunner at 8:02 AM on June 25, 2005

one more thing re the personal trainers - why did you schedule sessions on Wednesday then on Thursday? A good way to use a Personal Trainer is a few days apart. If you have biweekly sessions with this person, then a good idea is to see them on Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday and do some exercise on your own, in between visits.
posted by seawallrunner at 8:04 AM on June 25, 2005

Hematuria can occur after exercise that involves vigorous shaking and jarring of the body; think of racecar drivers and people who ride motorcycles with no shocks, like sourwookie. On the other hand, you could have myoglobinuria. This results from overuse of muscles causing them to break downand release their contents into the blood. This can be serious, even leading to kidney failure if untreated, but the treatment (good hydration as seawallrunner mentioned and maybe something to alkalinize the urine) is simple and effective. A description with some links to more info is here; definitely worth a visit to the doc, as you are planning.
posted by TedW at 8:40 AM on June 25, 2005

Did you eat beets or blackberries?
posted by tfmm at 9:11 AM on June 25, 2005

A symptom of dehydration can be orange colored urine.
posted by Manjusri at 10:51 AM on June 25, 2005

2 hours of exercise over 2 days isn't enough to cause myoglobinuria unless you've got something rare like McArdle's disease (myophosphorylase deficiency.) That usually gets diagnosed well before age 38.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:42 PM on June 25, 2005