I'm new to the group, so forgive me if this post is too long
or not on topic. I'm a 43 yo male. At a routine physical a
few months ago, a urine sample came back positive for
microscopic hematuria. The family doc ordered an IVP, which
came back clean, except that it showed a small trabecular
pattern on the bladder. Doc refered me to a urologist. Did a
prostate exam, which was normal. He ordered a kidney
ultrasound, which was fine, except the radiologist
questioned the way one of the kidneys looked. Back to the
urologist who then ordered a CT scan, which showed
everything was fine. After my fourth visit to the urologist,
he indicated he wanted to do a cystoscopy. He also indicated
that he didn't want to do it in the usual way (flex scope in
office) because he felt the opening of the urethra needed to
be enlarged with a metasaphy ?(basically enlarging the
opening). He said he would do it under general anesthetic
with a rigid scope. He indicated that this procedure would
improve my "flow" which I never knew I had a problem with--
seem to have a nice, steady stream. Today, I canceled the
test for several reasons.
1) I'm just physcially, emotionally, and financially spent
from this run around and can't think straight about this.
2)After doing some research on the subject, I have begun to
question if microscopic hematuria has any predictive value
at all. Many studies don't even recommend testing for it.
3)The four urine samples I have given at the urologist over
the past couple of months have all been clean. I should
also add that doing research on this led me to discover
how to properly give a "clean catch" urine sample. The one
that tested positive for microscopic hematuria was not
done that way. Also, it took two weeks to get this sample
back from the hospital lab, whereas the samples in the
urologist's office were all tested immediately.
4) Coincidentally, my father had the same diagnosis in a
routine urine test 40 years ago; he is in his 70's now.
My brother (46)had the same diagnosis some 20 years ago
and continues to have it on occasion in his urine tests.
My father had a cysto done which showed nothing, but my
brother did not (he may have had some radiographic
studies, however--all clean).
5) I have no symptons, no irregularities in type or
frequency of urination. Two years ago, I had the same
thing happen to me on a routine urine test with a
different family doc, who recommended doing the test
again and it came back clean, so we didn't pursue it.
I've questioned the urologist about doing culures or
microscopic analysis of the urine to see if there is any
blood, which I guess there wouldn't be, since they all
came back clean since I have been going there. His
response is that it isn't "standard of care."
Any thoughts from anyone with similar experiences? I am just
going crazy with this thing.