Living with bladder cancer

Coping with bladder cancer can be difficult. There are things you can do and people who can help you to cope. 

After surgery to remove your bladder, you will learn to adapt to a new way of passing urine. This can affect your day to day life.

After having a urostomy, you pass urine through an opening (stoma) in your tummy. You wear a bag at all times to catch the urine.

A continent urinary diversion is a way to pass urine after surgery to remove your bladder. Your surgeon makes an internal pouch to hold your urine.

After having a new bladder, you pass urine through your urethra, as you did before. But it feels different and you have to learn how to push out the urine. 

Bladder cancer and its treatment can affect your sex life and relationships. There are some ways to cope with this.

You might need some care and support at home due to bladder cancer or its treatment.

There are organisations, support groups, videos and books to help you cope with bladder cancer and treatment.