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Your GP will ask you questions about your symptoms and about your lifestyle - for example whether you smoke, and what work you have done in the past.
Your GP may then send you to see a specialist doctor (a urologist) at a local hospital. There are NHS cancer referral guidelines to help GPs decide who may need to see a specialist, and how quickly.
At hospital you are likely to have some or all of these tests:
Cystoscopy
This test lets your hospital doctor look at your bladder through a long, flexible instrument called a cystoscope, which is passed up through the urethra. The doctor can also take some small samples of tissue (biopsies) to be looked at under a microscope later.
Ultrasound scan
This test uses sound waves to build a picture of the inside of the body. You lie on your back while a device like a microphone is passed over your abdomen. The sound waves make pictures on a computer screen.
Intravenous urogram (IVU)
This is an x-ray of the kidneys, ureters and bladder. To make the picture clearer, a liquid called contrast medium is injected into a vein before the x-ray is taken.
Larger tissue samples
If your doctor thinks you may have invasive bladder cancer s/he will need to get some larger samples of tissue to examine. The doctor gets the samples through a long, flexible instrument called a cystoscope, which is passed up through the urethra (you have an anaesthetic for this). It can cause some bleeding, and urine will have to be drained from your bladder through a tube (called a catheter) for a day or two afterwards.
If you do have invasive bladder cancer your doctor will arrange a CT or MRI scan to find out whether the disease has spread…
Computerised tomography (CT or CAT scan)
This is a type of x-ray that creates a picture of the inside of the body. You lie on a couch while it passes through a large, hollow ring.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MR or MRI scan)
This is like a CT scan but it uses a magnet and radio waves, not x-rays, to make the picture. You lie on a couch inside a long chamber while the pictures are taken.
For more information about some of these tests, go to our cancer tests section.
