Bladder cancer in women often missed as UTI, diagnosis delayed years
Doctors often misdiagnose women's bladder cancer as urinary tract infections. This leads to diagnoses at later stages and worse outcomes.
Andrea Harris returned to her GP over four years. She thought she had recurring bladder infections.
She actually had advanced, muscle-invasive bladder cancer. By then, it had reached stage three.
In women, bladder cancer symptoms include blood in urine, burning during urination, and frequent need to wee. These look identical to UTI symptoms.
Doctors often dismiss these symptoms as UTIs. In Australia, three in four bladder cancer diagnoses happen in men.
But women who get it have worse outcomes. Their five-year survival rate is 50 per cent.
For men, it is almost 60 per cent. Experts say women should see a urologist if they have more than two UTIs in six months.
Or if they have three in a year. GPs need to consider risk factors like smoking when treating women with ongoing urinary symptoms.
- Four
- Years to Andrea Harris's diagnosis
- Stage three
- Stage at diagnosis
- 50 per cent
- Women's five-year survival rate
- 3,345
- Estimated annual diagnoses in Australia
Why it mattersEarly diagnosis of bladder cancer greatly improves survival. Delayed diagnosis because symptoms were mistaken for UTIs costs women years of treatment time.
AustraliaAustralian women presenting with recurrent UTI-like symptoms may need to push for further testing and specialist referral to catch bladder cancer early.
✓ Claims checked against the source. checked 3 h ago
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