Truth: Type Of Uti Test Matters Especially For Frequent Infections
For patients with recurrent urinary tract infection , your doctor likely will culture your urine to determine the specific type of bacteria causing your infection. A culture is more informative than a dipstick urine test that reveals only whether an infection is likely to be present.
The right test is particularly important for someone who experiences recurring infections. This is to be sure that your symptoms truly are due to infection and that the antibiotics usually used for these infections are appropriate for you, said Dr. Dielubanza.
What Can Happen If A Uti Is Not Treated
If treated right away, a UTI is not likely to damage your urinary tract. But if your UTI is not treated, the infection can spread to the kidneys and other parts of your body. The most common symptoms of kidney infection are fever and pain in the back where the kidneys are located. Antibiotics can also treat kidney infections.
Sometimes the infection can get in the bloodstream. This is rare but life-threatening.
What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Utis
UTIs can cause such signs as:
- pain, burning, or a stinging sensation when peeing
- an increased urge or more frequent need to pee
- fever
- waking up at night a lot to go to the bathroom
- belly pain in the area of the bladder
- foul-smelling pee that may look cloudy or contain blood
If you have any symptoms of a UTI, you’ll need to go to a doctor right away. The sooner you begin treatment, the less uncomfortable you’ll be. Call your doctor’s office or clinic. If you can’t reach your doctor, you can visit an urgent care center or hospital emergency room. The most important thing is to take action as soon as possible.
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Can I Get A Uti After Sex
The female urethra is not very long, so its not uncommon for women to get a UTI after intercourse 1 in 5 women* will experience a urinary tract infection at least once in their life. While its not completely understood why some women are more prone to getting them than others, research shows the vaginal microbiota plays a part in recurrent infections.*
But penetrative sex can also aggravate muscles near the vagina. The nerves in the pelvic floor are interconnected, so if youre having sex and your pelvic floor is in spasm, its going to magnify your symptoms.
Any insult to the genital-urinary tract whether its endo, a history of UTIs, or intercourse all of that can beget more muscle spasms, says Dr. Lewicky Gaupp.
Classification Of Urinary Tract Infections
UTIs are classified into 6 categories. The first category is an uncomplicated infection this is when the urinary tract is normal, both structurally and physiologically, and there is no associated disorder that impairs the host defense mechanisms. The second category is an complicated infection this is when infection occurs within an abnormal urinary tract, such as when there is ureteric obstruction, renal calculi, or vesicoureteric reflux. The third category, an isolated infection, is when it is the first episode of UTI, or the episodes are 6 months apart. Isolated infections affect 2540% of young females. The fourth category, an unresolved infection, is when therapy fails because of bacterial resistance or due to infection by two different bacteria with equally limited susceptibilities. The fifth category, reinfection, occurs where there has been no growth after a treated infection, but then the same organism regrows two weeks after therapy, or when a different microorganism grows during any period of time., This accounts for 95% of RUTIs in women. Bacterial persistence happens when therapy is impaired by the accumulation of bacteria in a location that cannot be reached by antibiotics, such as infected stones, urethral diverticula and infected paraurethral glands. The sixth category, relapse, is when the same microorganism causes a UTI within two weeks of therapy however, it is usually difficult to distinguish a reinfection from a relapse.
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Are Periods And Utis Connected
There is a connection between reproductive health and urinary tract infections, but a UTI will never directly affect your menstrual period.
Classic UTI symptoms include frequent urination, difficulty urinating, or an urge to urinate even when the bladder is empty.
In addition, some people feel a burning sensation in their genital area when they pee, have bloody or cloudy urine, or feel a cramping sensation in their lower abdomen.
If their UTI has advanced into a kidney infection, patients can have chills, fever, nausea, vomiting, and lower back pain when they urinate as well.
If you are experiencing one or more UTI symptoms and have a late period, there are a few reasons so much might be happening at once.
- Menopause: As women age, their estrogen levels drop and genital muscles atrophy, making them more susceptible to irregular periods and UTIs.
- Pregnancy: Early pregnancy symptoms often mirror UTI symptoms. Many women in their first trimester experience nausea, vomiting, and a frequent urge to urinate.
- Sexual intercourse and birth control: Women who engage in sexual activity are more likely to develop UTIs because sex can introduce bacteria into the urethra. Hormonal birth control does not increase womens risk for UTIs, but it can delay their period.
If you have concerns about UTI symptoms, a missed period, or another aspect of your reproductive or genital health, talk to an OB-GYN.
Cranberry Juice Really Might Help
We’ve all heard that cranberry juice is great for your bladder. While a helping of cranberry can’t treat an infection, drinking cranberry juice in addition to staying hydrated generally might be helpful for supporting the health of your urinary tract. The theory is that interferes with the bacterial ability to adhere to the bladder wall, says Dr. Ashton.
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How Utis Might Affect Menstruation
As mentioned, a urinary tract infection can cause serious stress and anxiety, especially if the patient suffers from chronic or recurrent urinary tract infections. Stress causes detrimental changes to the hormonal balance in an individual, and this could potentially have an effect on the way a womans cycle unfolds, leading to delays or even skipped periods.
Other ways in which a UTI might seem to be the culprit behind changes to a woman’s menstrual cycle are:
- Worsening menstrual cramps. Because most women already have menstrual cramps, adding a UTI on top of that, which causes pain in the rest of the pelvis, could be excruciating. This isnt a change to the cycle, only a complication that may require additional over the counter pain medications to control.
- Actual menstrual delays. If a woman with a UTI does see a delay in the onset of menstruation, this is more likely caused by the use of antibiotics she might have been prescribed for her urinary tract infection, and this is nothing to panic about. Estrogen, the active hormone that controls the onset and function of a period, is metabolized through the liver, which also metabolizes antibiotics. A course of antibiotics could slow down the metabolizing of the estrogen as the liver has extra work to do, which would lead to a delay in the onset of a menstrual period.
Ways to avoid all of this include:
Myth: Hygiene Habits And Clothing Fit Contribute To Utis
You may have heard that certain hygiene practices are risk factors for UTIs, particularly for women. But UTIs are not caused by how you wipe in the bathroom, by tampon use or by failing to empty your bladder after sexual intercourse. Theyre also not caused by wearing tight clothes.
A lot of women express concern about these, said Dr. Dielubanza. But studies have shown there is no association between these practices and UTIs.
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Will Yeast Infection Go Away With A Period
You may be asking yourself if your yeast infection will go away with a period, so you dont have to go to the doctors and get treatment. Are you hoping youll just put up with the itch for a few days and youll be fine? Im afraid not.
The symptoms of a vaginal yeast infection may ease or even disappear completely during your period because blood flow changes the pH level in your vagina and Candida cant grow in a high pH environment.
Straight after ovulation, the estrogen levels dip and progesterone levels rocket creating a perfect environment for Candida
However, if you dont treat your vaginal yeast infection, the symptoms will most certainly come back once your period is over. Its because many Candida cells will survive and will be able to multiply in no time, causing a newCandida bout.
Seattle Children’s Urgent Care Locations
If your childs illness or injury is life-threatening, call 911.
Treatment for a Bladder Infection
Prevention of Bladder Infections in Girls
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The Standard Uti Test Cannot Grow Most Bacteria
The standard urine culture method does not mimic the environment in the bladder. As we described above, a urine culture uses a specific medium, and specific conditions over a short frame of time.
The vast majority of all known organisms will not grow in these conditions. And many organisms that may be perfectly happy residing and multiplying in the bladder, will not grow in the environment of a culture plate.
This means the standard urine culture methods are just not able to identify all UTI-causing pathogens. The figure below shows organisms that have been identified in the bladder using expanded culture protocols. The markings can be interpreted as follows:
- Orange stars Bacteria known to be associated with UTIs or to make UTIs worse, but are not detected by SUC.
- Yellow arrows Known uropathogens that are not detected by SUC.
- Dark red arrows Organisms that SUC detects.
- Unmarked Not much is known about the unmarked organisms. Some of them might be beneficial , some benign , and some might be undiscovered uropathogens. More research is needed.
Alternative testing methods, like EQUC, PCR and NGS have been able to identify many pathogens that do not grow in a urine culture.
Why Its Important To Find The Right Practitioner
While you may be able to request UTI testing independently, the results have limited usefulness without a practitioner who can interpret the information and prescribe an appropriate treatment regimen.
Because the types of UTI testing covered above are not widely available, many practitioners may not be aware of them at all. Or they may be aware of them but have no experience using them, or may believe them to be unhelpful.
Always find a practitioner to work with before ordering testing. Weve covered recurrent UTI treatment approaches in a separate article, so dive in there for more insight.
With Microbiome testing, you don’t often get one bacteria. Certainly, I have found the usual suspects like E. coli. Ive even detected some STIs, and anaerobes that cant be grown by culture. Sometimes, you get long lists of bacteria that we know very little about, and I’ll do extensive literature searches and sometimes barely come up with one or two papers. And so what I generally do in that situation is to try and figure out which are likely to be pathogenic, and treat those. This is a really different way of prescribing antibiotics compared to when I was trained.” |
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What Is Honeymoon Cystitis
Honeymoon cystitis is a type of urinary tract infection. Cystitis is the medical term for an infection in the bladder that can cause pressure and cramping in the lower abdomen and burning urination, as well as difficulty urinating and no fever. Usually, the lining of the urethra and bladder becomes inflamed and irritated.
Frequent sexual intercourse can increase the chance of bacteria entering the urinary tract and the vagina being irritated when insufficient lubrication is used. The increased friction from insufficient lubrication during vaginal sex can irritate the womans urethra, leading to inflammation.
This can make someone more susceptible to an infection, as irritated tissues help create an environment where bacteria can linger and thrive. The term was coined because couples can have frequent sex in a short span of time during their honeymoon or women had their first intercourse in their life or after longer abstinence.
How Is A Uti Diagnosed
To find out whether you have a UTI, your doctor or nurse will test a clean sample of your urine. This means you will first wipe your genital area with a special wipe. Then you will collect your urine in midstream in a cup. Your doctor or nurse may then test your urine for bacteria to see whether you have a UTI, which can take a few days.
If you have had a UTI before, your doctor may order more tests to rule out other problems. These tests may include:
- A cystogram. This is a special type of x-ray of your urinary tract. These x-rays can show any problems, including swelling or kidney stones.
- A cystoscopic exam. The cystoscope is a small tube the doctor puts into the urethra to see inside of the urethra and bladder for any problems.
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Can Dehydration Cause A Uti
When you dont hydrate, your urine gets concentrated and can aggravate the bladder lining. While its good to keep up on your water intake on a daily basis, if you notice that you have bladder or urinary pain because of dehydration perhaps after a night of drinking or a bout of food poisoning Dr. Lewicky Gaupp says loading up on water can dilute the urine and relieve some of the irritation.
Even if youre not dehydrated, alcohol, caffeine, and some foods like acidic citrus fruits can exacerbate symptoms in those with a sensitive or overactive bladder.