Introduction
If a burning sensation and/or pain occurs during urination, the colloquial term is “pain when urinating”. In medicine, this phenomenon is referred to as alguria. In general, a distinction is made between two types of pain when urinating. On the one hand, the unpleasant feelings can occur at the beginning of urination, on the other hand, many patients describe such pain sensations at the end of the toilet.
Causes of pain when urinating
The most common causes of pain while urinating are There can be several causes for the occurrence of burning and/or pain when urinating. In general, it can be observed that women suffer from painful urination significantly more often than men. This fact can be explained by the fact that a woman’s urethra, which is approximately 3-5 cm long, is significantly shorter than a man’s (20-25 cm).
From this connection it can be deduced that also the most frequent causes of the pain when urinating must be different depending on the sex. Despite the fact that the occurrence of pain when urinating can be based on a variety of possible causes, the danger of this symptom should not be misjudged. If you experience pain while urinating, it is important to consult a doctor and determine the exact cause.
- Urinary tract infection or cystitis
- Inflammation of renal pelvis
- Inflammation of the vagina in women
- Bladder stones
- Inflammation of the prostate or glans in men
- Irritable bladder
- Rare tumors in the urinary tract
By far the most common reason for painful micturition is the typical cystitis, which can quickly develop, especially in women. On average, infections of the urinary tract are most likely to be those causes that cause an unpleasant feeling during urination. This type of infection can be provoked by bacterial pathogens as well as various strains of fungi.
In most cases, the pathogens are carried into the urethra by incorrect cleaning of the anal region after defecation. From there they rise to the bladder or the upper parts of the urinary tract. Viral or possibly parasitic infections are rather rare in this context.
Sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis can also cause pain when urinating. It is precisely in those cases in which the pathogens attack the mucous membranes of the lower urinary tract (especially the bladder and urethra) that the typical pain occurs when urinating. However, since infections of the upper urinary tract (kidneys and ureters) usually spread to the lower urinary tract, unpleasant sensations can also occur in such cases.
The symptom “pain when urinating” is therefore not an accurate way of distinguishing between an upper urinary tract infection and an infection of the lower urinary tract. Inflammatory processes in the area of the kidneys, the bladder and/or the urethra can also lead to severe pain and burning sensation when urinating. In most cases, these inflammations are not caused by bacteria or other infectious agents, but rather by other stimuli (so-called non-infectious stimuli).
Inflammation of the renal pelvis is also one of the reasons that particularly often leads to pain when urinating and requires urgent treatment. Irradiation of the pelvic region (e.g. when X-rays are taken) provokes the development of such inflammatory processes in some patients (radiogenic cystitis; radiation-induced cystitis). In women, the pain when urinating often occurs in connection with an inflammation of the vagina (colitis).
Although the burning and painful sensations in this disease tend to occur directly in the area of the vagina, pain during urination can occur due to direct contact of the urine with the irritated areas. The additional occurrence of increased discharge in combination with the basic symptom can be used to distinguish such vaginal inflammation from a pathological change in the urinary tract.Inflammatory processes on the labia and the vagina (so-called vulvovaginitis) primarily cause pain during sexual intercourse and increasing itching, but discomfort during urination can also be possible symptoms of such a disease. Bladder stones can also cause irritation or injury by exerting pressure on the sensitive tissue and thus cause pain when urinating.
The term irritable bladder is used to describe a disease of the urinary bladder, which is manifested by various signs. In addition to the pain when urinating, many affected persons experience frequent urge to urinate with small amounts of urine (pollakiuria) and/or incontinence. An irritable bladder can, on the one hand, be caused by a chronic cystitis, on the other hand it cannot be excluded that such symptoms are a first indication of the presence of a bladder tumor.
In these cases one speaks of a so-called secondary irritable bladder. In contrast, no cause can be found for a primary irritable bladder despite the most modern diagnostic procedures. In some patients who suffer from pain when urinating, tumors of the urinary tract can be detected.
This possibility should be considered especially in older people or in the absence of another diagnosis. In most cases, in addition to the unpleasant sensations during urination, bloody deposits in the urine can be detected in the presence of urinary tract tumors. Although the typical inflammation of the bladder as the reason for the unpleasant urination occurs far more frequently in women, it is strictly speaking not one of the so-called gender-specific causes (such causes that are either only in women or only in men).
In addition, irritation of the tissue in the urinary tract can occur in connection with drug treatment. In men, pain when urinating can be provoked by the presence of inflammatory processes in the area of the prostate gland (Latin: prostate). Such an inflammation of the prostate (prostatitis) also leads to sometimes severe pain in the genital area and/or during ejaculation. In some cases, inflammation of the glans can also lead to pain when urinating in men.
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