Understandably, if the procedure was not explained to you before your doctor scheduled it, then you will be worried about what it entails. A cystoscopy is a procedure in which the goal is to visualize in detail the interior of the bladder. It is used when a doctor feels that there is something going on in the bladder which cannot be determined through urinalysis, blood work, or other imaging such as an ultrasound or CT scan. Blood in the urine is not all that uncommon. If you are a woman, then blood in the urine usually means you have a urinary tract infection. When a urinary tract infection is diagnosed and there is blood in the urine, a cystoscopy is not typically done because the source of the blood is assumed to be the infection.