Re: For those with a double ureter anomaly, how is the need to urinate affected

A double ureter means that a kidney is drained by two different ureters 
instead of just one. The ureter is the tube that connects kidneys to the 
bladder. With a double ureter, usually one ureter drains the top of the 
kidney and another one drains the bottom part of the kidney. The area of 
the kidney that collects the urine and where the ureter connects to the 
kidney is called the pelvis. People with a double ureter will also have a 
double pelvis (one for each kidney). 

This won't change the formation of urine at all. The difference is that 
instead of all the urine from a kidney going down one ureter, some of the 
urine goes down one ureter and some of the urine goes down the other. The 
same amount of urine produced would be the same. Because the bladded 
still stores the urine, there will be no changes at all in urination.

There are two exceptions, though:

1) People with double ureters are prone to get urinary tract infections. 
These infections can increase the need to urinate when the infections are 
active and can damage the kidneys (both the one with the double ureter 
and the normal one). For this reason, people who are known to have double 
ureters will often be followed by urologists.

2) People with double ureters can have other anatomical anomolies.
THese anomolies can affect the kidneys, bladder or other  parts of the 
body (or there might not be any other anomolies at all).

Additional information about double ureters can be found at:
 http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic226.htm http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/section19/chapter261/261j.jsp

I hope this answers your question.

Thanks.