How to Find Out the Cause for Red Colour Urine?

Red coloured urine can occur due to various reasons. Some of the causes of red coloured urine, for example blood in urine, can be very serious. Therefore, it is very important that you seek medical help, if you develop red coloured urine even once.

Red coloured urine does not always mean hematuria (blood in urine). haematuria, haemoglobinuria, myoglobinuria, some foods and some drugs can give rise to red coloured urine. The exact colour of the urine can be helpful to differentiate one from the other. When you say red coloured urine, it can vary from bright red to dark red colour. Dark red or coca cola colour urine indicates myoglobinuria which results from breakdown of muscles. Some drugs can also give a red colour to the urine. Some of these drugs are ethambutol, rifampicin and metronidasole. Some dietary ingredients can also give a red colour to the urine. These instances of red coloured urine are called pseudohaematuria.

The other way to find out the cause of red coloured urine is to know which part of the urine stream do you see the red coloured. Some people have red coloured urine only at the beginning of the stream and some have gross red coloured urine throughout the urine stream and some can complain of red coloured urine at the end of the urine flow.

Hematuria at the beginning of the urine flow is due to urethral strictures or urethral carcinoma. Terminal hematuria is due to a pathology in the bladder neck or the trigone. Even hematuria is often due to a renal pathology..

The commonest causes of hematuria are malignancy, stones and infections. Apart from these three most common causes there are other less common causes of hematuria such as glomerulonephritis, tuberculosis, poly cystic kidney disease, bleeding disorders, some drugs (warfarin, Heparin, Aspirin), benign prostatic hyperplasia and radiation cystitis.

As described above, we can find out the cause of red coloured urine only by describing the nature of it without the help of any investigations. We can always perform investigations to confirm the diagnosis.