Tests for Bladder Problems

As a part of the urinary system, your bladder helps remove wastes from circulating blood and is expressed from the body as urine. Bladder problems are serious and can cause devastating results. Without your bladder working properly, you cannot complete the basic bodily functions required to live. Bladder diseases are easier to treat when you catch them early, using one of the tests for bladder problems.

Bladder Structure and Function

• Your bladder is hollow, muscular and shaped like a sac. It is located inside your pelvis, where it is sandwiched between your ureters and the urethra. The ureters deliver small amounts of urine from the kidneys to the bladder every few seconds. The bladder stores the urine until it is full. Then the nerve endings in the bladder signal the brain that the bladder is full. Muscles relax and allow the urine to be released out of the body through the urethra.

How to Give a Urine Sample

• Your urine is such an important product of your bladder's function. Therefore, if you complain about bladder issues, the first thing your health care provider will ask you for is a urine sample. Before you begin, you should wash your hands and the area around your urethra. This prevents bacteria from contaminating the test results. Start urinating, letting the stream hit the toilet water and start collecting midstream. Move the container away from the stream before it ends and allow the last urine to go into the toilet instead of the container.

Urine Analysis and Urine Culture

• The first step to diagnose a bladder problem is to analyze a urine sample for bacteria or other irregularities. If your bladder problems are being brought on by infection, this is enough to determine what is causing them. For more complicated problems, such as recurring bladder infections, your health care provider may use a urine culture to further identify the strain of bacteria causing your problem. A urine culture involves cultivating the bacteria found in the urine for identification. In some cases, medication may even be tested on the urine culture to determine its effectiveness before it is prescribed to you.

X-rays and Ultrasounds

• In cases where your doctor suspects blockages, he may turn to X-rays or ultrasounds to examine your bladder's structure and function non-invasively. Blockages, such as bladder stones, can prevent urine from being expressed or can cause painful symptoms. Often, your health care provider will use an iodine dye that shows up well on the X-ray or ultrasound to highlight your urinary tract and the bladder structure.

Cystoscopy

• In some cases, your health care provider may need a clearer view of your bladder than X-rays or ultrasounds can give. He may be looking for tumors or a malformed structure. A cystoscopy is an endoscopic way to examine the bladder. He will numb your urethra with a gel and then insert a scope through it into your bladder. He also fills your bladder with a sterile liquid to get a better idea of how your bladder acts when it's full. You may experience some discomfort during a cystoscopy, but it should not be painful.