Referral to a bladder cancer specialist

Seeing your GP

It can be hard for GPs to decide who may have cancer and who might have a more minor condition. For some symptoms, your doctor may ask you to wait to see if the symptoms get better. Or if they respond to treatment, such as antibiotics.

UK referral guidelines

There are guidelines for GPs to help them decide who needs a referral. Your GP will use these guidelines as well as their own experience and judgement.

The referral guidelines vary slightly between the different UK nations. The following is a summary.

You should have an urgent referral if you are:

• 45 or over and you can see blood in your urine and you don't have a urine infection

• 45 or over and you can still see blood in your urine after treatment for a urine infection

• 60 or over and a dip stick test shows there is blood in your urine, and you also either have pain on passing urine or a raised white blood cell count

• any age, and your doctor can feel a lump when they examine you or if a scan of your tummy (abdomen) shows a lump

Your GP should consider a non-urgent referral to a specialist if you are aged 60 or over and you have a urine infection that won't go away or keeps coming back.

A urine infection will make your urine test positive to small amounts of protein and blood on a dip stick test.

Women are more likely to get urine infections than men. This is because the tube to the bladder (the urethra) is much shorter in women. The urethra is also closer to the opening of the bowel (anus) so it is easier for germs to get into the bladder.

Doctors are likely to want to rule out urine infection for women before making an urgent referral. This is not necessarily the case for men.

Where you might see a specialist

You usually see a specialist called a urologist if you have symptoms of bladder cancer. Some hospitals have specialised clinics for people who have blood in their urine (haematuria). Other hospitals have urology departments. These diagnose and treat people with any urinary system problems.

Other symptoms

Your GP will consider any other symptoms you have, so do mention these.

Read more about the possible symptoms of bladder cancer

Risk factors

Your GP might also take into account whether you have any risk factors that affect your chances of developing bladder cancer.

Go to the risks and causes of bladder cancer

If you're still worried

Sometimes you might feel that your GP is not concerned enough about your symptoms. If you think they should be more concerned, print this page and the symptoms page. Ask your GP to explain why they don’t think you need a referral.

Contact your GP again if your symptoms don't get better or you notice any new or unusual symptoms.

What should I do if I don’t get my appointment?

If your GP has referred you, ask them when you should get your appointment. Contact them again if you don’t get one. Or some hospitals have a referral service you could try contacting if you know which hospital you are going to. Explain that you are waiting for an urgent suspected cancer referral.

Go to more information about an urgent referral

Waiting times

Your hospital is working towards waiting time targets. For example, a target to find out whether you have cancer or not. And there are targets to start treatment if you are diagnosed with cancer. These are slightly different depending on where you live in the UK.

Find out about other cancer waiting times