What Are Symptoms of a Bladder Fistula?
The symptoms of a bladder fistula include urinary tract infections, gas that comes from the urethra when the person is urinating, leakage of urine, diarrhea, fever, nausea, weight loss, abdominal pain and vomiting, reports Loyola Medicine and WebMD. A bladder fistula is also called a urinary fistula and the most common type is that of the female urogenital fistula, according to Cornell Medical College.
The bladder fistula is considered abnormal and is not healthy as it connects two parts of the body that should not be connected, such as the vagina and the bladder, according to the Urology Health Foundation. This connection is most often between the vagina or the bowel area. The condition can only be diagnosed through an excretory urogram and must be treated through surgical removal and sometimes chemotherapy or radiation treatments if the disease is a result of another disease, such as bowel cancer, reports the Urology Care Foundation.
The reason for the bladder fistula being typically a woman’s problem is because the vagina is directly connected to the bladder in a way where the bladder can easily leak urine into the vagina, reports Cornell Medical College. This means that while women in developed nations rarely have to worry about hygienic problems relating to the connection between the bladder and the vagina, women in developing nations do. The reason for the vaginal bladder fistula is most often due to trauma and infections sustained while giving birth and this is a problem that is seen most often in the developing world.
