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Urinary & Kidneys
Symptoms of the kidneys, bladder and urinary tract: pain or burning when passing urine, needing to go more often, blood in the urine, difficulty passing urine and leaking. These pages explain common causes such as infection and prostate or stone problems, and when urinary symptoms need urgent attention.
This page lists all 13 of them in the guide. Open any symptom for its possible causes, red-flag list and frequently asked questions.
Being unable to pass urineUrinary
Blood in the urineUrinary
Cloudy or strong-smelling urineUrinary
Difficulty starting to urinateUrinary
Flank painUrinary
Foamy urineUrinary
Leaking urine (incontinence)Urinary
Needing to urinate at nightUrinary
Needing to urinate oftenUrinary
Pain or burning when urinatingUrinary
Passing very little urineUrinary
Sudden urgency to urinateUrinary
Weak urine streamUrinary| Symptom | Category | What it can feel like |
|---|---|---|
| Being unable to pass urine | Urinary | Being unable to pass urine at all (acute retention) means wanting to go but being unable to, with a full, increasingly painful bladder. It is an emergency that needs… |
| Blood in the urine | Urinary | Blood in the urine can be visible — pink, red or cola-coloured urine — or microscopic, found only on testing. Either way it always deserves assessment: bleeding can come… |
| Cloudy or strong-smelling urine | Urinary | Cloudy urine looks milky or hazy rather than clear, and strong-smelling urine has a noticeably pungent odour. On their own, without other symptoms, these changes are… |
| Difficulty starting to urinate | Urinary | Difficulty starting to urinate (hesitancy) means standing and waiting for the stream to begin, sometimes needing to strain. In men it is most often the prostate… |
| Flank pain | Urinary | Flank pain is pain in the side of the body, between the ribs and the hip, often felt in the back on one side. Pain here is classically linked to the kidney — the… |
| Foamy urine | Urinary | Foamy urine means the urine forms persistent foam or froth in the bowl that does not quickly disperse — different from a few bubbles that vanish. Persistent foam can be… |
| Leaking urine (incontinence) | Urinary | Leaking urine means urine escapes when you did not intend it — with coughing, laughing or exercise (stress leakage), after a sudden desperate urge (urge leakage), or a… |
| Needing to urinate at night | Urinary | Needing to urinate at night (nocturia) means waking one or more times to pass urine. Once a night is common and often normal, especially with age; waking two or more… |
| Needing to urinate often | Urinary | Needing to urinate often means passing urine many more times a day than usual, often in small amounts, sometimes with urgency. It is a bladder-storage problem: the… |
| Pain or burning when urinating | Urinary | Pain or burning when urinating (dysuria) is a stinging, burning or scalding feeling as urine passes, often with a need to go more often and urgently. In women it most… |
| Passing very little urine | Urinary | Passing very little urine means producing much less urine than usual over a day — going many hours without needing the toilet, or passing only small dark amounts.… |
| Sudden urgency to urinate | Urinary | Sudden urgency is a compelling, hard-to-defer need to pass urine — the 'when I've got to go, I've got to go' feeling — sometimes with leakage if a toilet is not reached… |
| Weak urine stream | Urinary | A weak urine stream means urine flows slowly, in a thin or spraying stream, taking longer to empty the bladder, sometimes with dribbling at the end. Like hesitancy, in… |
Please note: This page is educational information about a symptom. A symptom alone cannot diagnose any condition, and the causes listed here are possibilities, not a diagnosis. If you are worried about a symptom — especially one that is new, severe, getting worse or not going away — please see your own clinician, who can examine you and arrange tests. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.