Practical forms, clear explanations and trusted exercise guides to help you prepare for a urology appointment and understand your bladder symptoms.
You do not need every test or form listed here. Your clinical team will explain which are useful for you. The free resources below open on the original BAUS, NHS or physiotherapy provider’s website, where you can save or print them.
A record of your everyday symptoms can help make your consultation more useful.
Record when and how much you drink, when you pass urine, the amount passed and any leakage. Include waking and bedtimes. Complete three normal, consecutive days unless your team gives different instructions.
Keep your usual routine. Do not deliberately drink more or less to change the results, and follow any prescribed fluid restriction.
British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) · Publisher’s resource page
Seven questions record urinary symptoms over the past month. A separate question asks how those symptoms affect your quality of life. Complete the official form and bring it to your appointment.
Symptom totals range from 0 to 35: 0–7 mild, 8–19 moderate and 20–35 severe. The quality-of-life score is recorded separately. A score describes symptoms; it does not diagnose the cause or decide treatment on its own.
These assessments answer different questions. Your symptoms, examination and other findings guide which tests are needed.
You pass urine into special equipment that records the volume, speed and pattern of your flow. The test is non-invasive and is often followed by a bladder scan.
Follow your appointment instructions and aim for a comfortably full bladder. Tell staff if holding on is difficult; do not force yourself to become painfully full.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust · Source page
A small ultrasound scanner is placed over your lower tummy after you pass urine. It estimates the amount left behind, called the post-void residual (PVR).
The scan is usually painless. The result is considered alongside your symptoms and other tests; one measurement alone does not identify why urine remains. Sometimes it needs repeating.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Web guide
Urodynamics measures pressures while the bladder fills and empties. Fine tubes are used to help your specialist understand bladder function and guide treatment.
Your team will explain preparation, medicines and urine checks. Contact them before the test if you think you have a urine infection. Temporary discomfort, bleeding or infection can occur; your team will discuss the risks with you.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Source page
Your appointment letter comes first. Hospitals use different preparation and medicine instructions. Check with your own team before changing medicines, and tell them about fluid restrictions or difficulty holding a full bladder. Contact details in an external NHS leaflet belong to that NHS service.
Pelvic floor training can help some types of urinary leakage. The right technique includes letting the muscles relax fully between squeezes and breathing normally.
Free specialist physiotherapy guide
Practical guidance from Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP), including finding and training the muscles.
POGP · Free to download and print
Free specialist physiotherapy guide
POGP guidance on understanding the pelvic floor and developing an exercise routine that is appropriate for you.
Women’s guide & PDF download ↗
POGP · Free to download and print
Strengthening is not right for every bladder problem. If you have pelvic pain, pain during sex, or difficulty starting or emptying your bladder, ask your clinician or a pelvic health physiotherapist before starting or increasing exercises. Tight muscles may need help to relax. Stop if exercises cause pain or worsen symptoms. Do not routinely practise by stopping and starting your urine stream.
Breathing and pelvic floor relaxation: Torbay and South Devon NHS guide (PDF) ↗
After pelvic or prostate surgery, or if you have a catheter, follow your own team’s advice about when and how to exercise.
Bring any completed diary or questionnaire, your medicines list, relevant urine-test results and the questions that matter to you. Keep completed forms private and bring them to the appointment; ask the clinic if you need a secure way to send them.
Mr Syed Ali Shahzad and the clinical team will put the findings into context and discuss the next steps with you.
Do not wait to complete a diary if you need urgent help. Sudden inability to pass urine needs immediate medical assessment. Fever or shivering with urinary symptoms, pain in your back beneath the ribs, or blood in the urine needs urgent GP or NHS 111 advice.
Birmingham Advanced Urology curates this patient education resource to help people prepare for urological assessment. The clinical service is led by Mr Syed Ali Shahzad, Consultant Urological and Robotic Surgeon.
Published: 20 September 2026 · Page updated and resource links checked: 20 September 2026.
Birmingham Advanced Urology. Assessments & Patient Resources. Published 20 September 2026. Available at: https://birminghamadvancedurology.co.uk/assessments/. Include your date of access.
For a specific questionnaire, leaflet or research finding, cite its original publisher and edition. The resource buttons above link directly to BAUS, NHS and POGP publications. Their authorship and document dates remain those of the original providers.
The seven-item AUA symptom index underlying the IPSS symptom score was validated by Barry MJ and colleagues: The American Urological Association symptom index for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Journal of Urology. 1992;148(5):1549–1557. Read the PubMed record · DOI: 10.1016/S0022-5347(17)36966-5.
The bladder diary is a practical recording chart. This hub is a patient-information collection; it does not present a new research study or validation of the linked forms.
For requests for clinical comment from Mr Shahzad, contact the clinic team through the enquiry page.
Published by Birmingham Advanced Urology. These external resources are provided for patient education and remain the work of their original publishers. Links were checked on 20 September 2026; editions and local protocols may change. Use the publisher’s page for the latest version and your clinical team’s instructions for your own care.
