ATTENTION: I'm posting here about a personal medical issue. Stop now if you don't want to read about the details. And if this is inappropriate for the main forum, sorry... please let me know and I'll move it to Lavender Room.


OK, so... anyone else had exercise-induced bladder trauma and hematuria? Any advice or insight?

I've been racing bikes for two decades and racing triathlon for four years. I did my last race of the year about a month ago and I've been doing milder, shorter workouts since then. Then two weeks ago in the middle of a trail run I had to stop to take a pee, nothing unusual there. But then, "frank hematuria" in as they say. Extremely frank, so to speak. Freaked me out. I get checked in urgent care and give a specimen, they rule out infection (UTI, STI, etc.). A few days later I get a CT and the urologist says it all looks ok. He does a cytoscopy (ouch) and sees a large bruise and healing lesion on the posterior bladder epithelial wall, and he concludes that it's the result of vigorous exercise. According to him what happened was that I went running too hard with too little liquid in me. Basically, triathlon training pinch-flatted my bladder!

He's not a runner or cyclist so he couldn't offer much insight into exactly what the bad scenario was or realistically how I could avoid it in the future. I don't recall any acute trauma moments leading up to it, so I don't really know how not to repeat it. Could it be the long-term result of sitting the way I sit on my tri bike? I don't think I'm doing anything wrong, but the thought crossed my mind to try an Adamo or something instead of my Hilo RXL. Or maybe I really did just bounce my bladder too hard while trail running? It just seems unlikely. I'm not that aggressive.

Any wisdom would be appreciated.

Thanks
Alex