What are the symptoms of IgA nephropathy?
The main symptom of IgA nephropathy is phases where blood can be seen clearly in the urine blood in the urine. This makes the urine appear darker than usual, sometimes brown or cola coloured and sometimes pink or red. This mostly clears up after a few days but can come back. In between phases, there is often a small amount of blood in the urine that can be discovered by test sticks. Rarely, a child with IgA nephropathy can have swelling due to increased fluid in the body, which is not being removed by the kidneys as it should. This can cause puffiness, particularly around the eyes, tummy, feet and legs, and weight gain. The medical word for this puffiness is oedema. Blood pressure may rise due to fluids and salts being retained by the body.
