Xrays are not always the the best method to see anything wrong, especially when dealing with the soft tissues. Thus we invented CAT and MRI. Xrays are often used as a first step because they are cheaper than MRI and CAT and most insurance companies have decided to play doctor and insist that an Xray be done first. Your two symptoms of pain and blood in the urine could be infection, or a kidney/urinary tract stone or... well there are a number of things. Getting a diagnosis can take some time. If your female that adds a whole new level of 'female issues' to the list. Kidney stones: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000458.htm#Symptoms hit women more often than men and are sometimes times related to 'womanly issues'. Causes for blood in the urine: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003138.htm * Cancer of the bladder or kidney * Fractured pelvis * Kidney or bladder stones * Kidney disease following strep throat ( post-stretococcal glomerulonephritis) -- a classic cause of blood in the urine in children * Kidney failure * Infection of the bladder, kidney, or urethra * Inflammation of the bladder, urethra, or kidney ( glomerulonephritis) * Injury to the kidney * Polycystic kidney disease * Recent urinary tract procedure such as catheterization, circumcision, surgery, or kidney biopsy The list is kind of long, and they usually start with the most common cause and work their way down a list, removing potential issues one at a time until they find which is the cause. Since infections are the number one cause, they will treat that first and see if that works. I bet the doctor asked if you had any procedures (e.g. catheterization), or took a fall or where hit or in an accident to rule that one out. You can speed the process up a little by being insistent on seeing a doctor again and again. Unless you are taking medication say antibiotics and need to wait, the doctor may attempt something else or seek other diagnostic tools. Modern medicine does have the means to 'quickly' and definitively pinpoint a cause in most cases through tests and expensive MRI's CAT's etc - however with millions and billions of patients coming in it is unlikely that everyone or even a majority can be treated with this kind of coverage - each lab test requires the attention of at least one person - that means every check on your blood lab workup requires one person (more often than not) to do that specific lab - then at least one person for the MRI, the CAT, whatever. This becomes a very expensive and resource consuming process. Thus medicine is done by targeting the most common causes/diseases without extensive tests/imaging etc. and this works for most cases. If this was say the auto mechanic industry it would be as if all mechanics had to strip the car all the way down to repair anything instead of going for the most likely issue first.