Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
What you can expect
By Mayo Clinic staffYou need to provide a urine sample for urinalysis. Depending on your situation, you may collect the sample at home or at your doctor's office. Your doctor will provide a container for the urine sample. You may be asked to collect the sample first thing in the morning because at that time your urine is more concentrated, and abnormal results may be more obvious.
To obtain the most accurate results, the sample may need to be collected midstream, using a clean-catch method. This method involves the following steps:
- Cleanse the urinary opening. Women should spread their labia and clean from front to back. Men should wipe the tip of the penis.
- Begin to urinate into the toilet.
- Stop urinating briefly.
- Urinate at least 1 to 2 ounces (29.5 to 59.1 milliliters) into the collection container.
- Finish urinating into the toilet.
- Deliver the sample as directed by your doctor.
- If you can't deliver the sample to the designated area within 30 minutes of collection, refrigerate the sample, unless you've been instructed otherwise by your doctor.
In some cases, your doctor may insert a thin, flexible tube (catheter) through the urinary tract opening and into the bladder to collect the urine sample.
The urine sample is sent to a lab for analysis. You can return to your usual activities immediately.
- Urinalysis. Lab Tests Online. http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/urinalysis/test.html. Accessed Dec. 17, 2008.
- What you need to know about urinalysis. National Kidney Foundation. http://www.kidney.org/atoz/pdf/urinalysis.pdf. Accessed Dec. 12, 2008.
- Stoller ML, et al. Urologic Disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2009. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=11917&searchStr=urinalysis. Accessed Dec. 17, 2008.
- Kim HL, et al. Urology. In: Brunicardi FC, et al. Schwartz's Principles of Surgery. 8th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=819033&searchStr=urinalysis. Accessed Dec. 17, 2008.
- Urine tests. KidsHealth. http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/labtest7.html. Accessed Dec. 17, 2008.
- Laboratory diagnosis: Urine studies. In: Gomella LG, et al. Clinician's Pocket Reference. 11th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=11917&searchStr=urinalysis. Accessed Dec. 17, 2008.
- hCG. Lab Tests Online. http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/hcg/multiprint.html. Accessed Dec. 23, 2008.
- Testing for drugs of abuse. Lab Tests Online. http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/drug_abuse/glance.html. Accessed Dec. 23, 2008.
