Urine Test: How It Is Done

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How It Is Done

A routine urine test can be done in your health professional's office, clinic, or lab. You may also be asked to collect a urine sample at home and bring it with you to the office or lab for testing.

Clean-catch midstream one-time urine collection

• Wash your hands to make sure they are clean before collecting the urine.
• If the collection cup has a lid, remove it carefully and set it down with the inner surface up. Do not touch the inside of the cup with your fingers.
• Clean the area around your genitals.
  • A man should retract the foreskin, if present, and clean the head of his penis with medicated towelettes or swabs.
  • A woman should spread open the genital folds of skin with one hand. Then use her other hand to clean the area around the urethra with medicated towelettes or swabs. She should wipe the area from front to back so bacteria from the anus is not wiped across the urethra.
• Begin urinating into the toilet or urinal. A woman should hold apart the genital folds of skin while she urinates.
• After the urine has flowed for several seconds, place the collection cup into the urine stream and collect about of this “midstream” urine without stopping your flow of urine.
• Do not touch the rim of the cup to your genital area. Do not get toilet paper, pubic hair, stool (feces), menstrual blood, or anything else in the urine sample.
• Finish urinating into the toilet or urinal.
• Carefully replace and tighten the lid on the cup then return it to the lab. If you are collecting the urine at home and cannot get it to the lab in an hour, refrigerate it.

Double-voided urine sample collection

This method collects the urine your body is making right now.

• Urinate into the toilet or urinal. Do not collect any of this urine.
• Drink a large glass of water and wait about 30 to 40 minutes.
• Then get a urine sample. Follow the instructions above for collecting a clean-catch urine sample.

Return the urine sample to the lab. If you are collecting the urine at home and cannot get it to the lab in an hour, refrigerate it.

Last updated:	September 18, 2008
Author:	Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS
Reviewed By:	E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine, Avery L. Seifert, MD - Urology
Editors:	Maria Essig, Tracy Landauer