Is Frequent Urination a Sign of Cancer?

Going more often is common and usually dull. Blood in your pee is not.

The NHS says to ask for an urgent GP appointment, or get help from NHS 111, if you have blood in your pee. It spells out that this holds even if you have no other symptoms, it is the first time it has happened, there is only a small amount, or you are not sure it is blood.

It describes the colour as bright pink, red or dark brown. It also says blood in pee is not usually caused by anything serious, but must be checked, because it can be a sign of cancer.

One episode counts. A second one that never came does not cancel the first.

The NHS pairs urinary symptoms with likely causes.

Burning when you pee, needing to go often, smelly or cloudy pee, a high temperature and pain in the sides or lower back point to a urinary tract infection. Bad pain in the sides, lower back or groin that comes and goes, with feeling sick and being unable to lie still, points to kidney stones. Older men who find it hard to start, need to go suddenly and often, and wake in the night usually have an enlarged prostate.

Diabetes, pregnancy, caffeine, alcohol and water tablets all increase how often you go. So does an overactive bladder.

The NHS also notes that pee can look wrong for harmless reasons. Beetroot turns it pink. Some medicines turn it red or brown. Bleeding from the back passage or a period can be mistaken for it.

NCI says the most common symptom of bladder cancer is blood in the urine, often slightly rusty to bright red. It notes the blood can appear once and then not return for a while, and that sometimes there is too little to see. Its other common symptoms are frequent urination, pain or burning when urinating, feeling you need to go when the bladder is not full, and urinating often at night.

For prostate cancer, NCI lists trouble starting the flow, frequent urination especially at night, trouble emptying the bladder completely, and a weak or stop-and-go stream. It adds an important caveat: as men age the prostate may enlarge and block the flow, and that condition is not cancer, though it causes the same symptoms.

This combination gets mis-sorted online, so it is worth being exact.

For anyone, the NHS says to call 999 or go to A&E if you have back pain along with pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs, a loss of feeling around your genitals or anus, or changes in your bladder or bowels such as difficulty peeing or wetting yourself.

For someone already under a cancer team, the advice is different. Macmillan says spinal cord compression is an emergency needing treatment as soon as possible, and that if you develop symptoms you should get medical advice immediately from the hospital team where you usually go for treatment. It says to go to A&E straight away only if you cannot reach anyone.

Keep those numbers where you can find them at night.

Being unable to pass any urine, with a painful swollen lower belly, is not something to sit out. MedlinePlus lists being unable to pass urine among the things to contact a provider about straight away. The bladder has to be drained, so go to A&E or an emergency department if you cannot be seen within a few hours.

The NHS sepsis signs apply to urine infections too: confusion or slurred speech, very fast breathing, blue, pale or blotchy skin, a very high or very low temperature, or shivering. Those mean 999 or A&E.

A bladder diary answers most of what a GP will ask.

Note how many times you go by day and by night, roughly how much, what you drank and when, whether there was burning or urgency, and whether the colour changed. Add your medicines. Take it with you. When Should I Worry About a Symptom? explains how that pattern gets read.

• NHS — Blood in urine
• NHS — Back pain
• NHS — Sepsis
• MedlinePlus — Urination, difficulty with flow
• National Cancer Institute — Bladder Cancer Symptoms
• National Cancer Institute — Prostate Cancer Treatment (PDQ)
• Macmillan Cancer Support — Metastatic spinal cord compression