Urinary Tract Infection | Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Being a woman increases the chance of getting a urinary tract infection. Women often face repeated infections throughout their lives and they should know how to handle these infections.  In this blog article, I will guide you on how you can avoid urinary tract infections and how can you cure them easily even if it's your first or fifth infection.

What Causes A UTI Infection?

Your grandmothers or mothers might have told you to wipe your private body parts after using the toilet from front to back. The reason for this is that the tube of the urine which carries the urine outside the body; the urethra, is located close to the anus. When you pass stool, bacteria from the large intestine such as E. coli are also released from the anus. They can invade the urethra and cause infection. If the infection is not treated, the infection can spread to the kidneys. Women have shorter urethras than men, so they are more prone to UTIs.

If your sex partner has an infection, he can transmit the bacteria to you and the infection can again spread to the kidneys if it is untreated.

Symptoms Of UTI

It is very easy to identify a Urinary Tract Infection. You can look for the following symptoms in your body and get yourself treated at the earliest.

• A frequent urge to urinate but little urine comes out when you pass it and that too is painful.
• A burning sensation when you urinate.
• Cloudy, dark, bloody, or smelly urine
• Pain or pressure on your back, lower abdomen, and legs.
• Feeling tired or exhausted
• If you have a fever with these symptoms, this is a sign that the infection has reached your kidneys.

Also Read: Types, Symptoms, Diagnosis And Risk Factors Of Diabetes

Tests And Treatments Of UTI

If you have any one of the symptoms listed above, or even more than one, there are high chances that you have a urinary tract infection. You should go to your doctor immediately. Your doctor will ask for a urine sample. The urine sample will be tested for the presence of any kind of infection.

The treatment includes antibiotics to kill the bacteria that has infected you. When taking antibiotics, you should complete the cycle of the medicine that your doctor has prescribed, otherwise, the infection may be left untreated, or the bacteria may grow stronger than before which is inside you.

Drinking lots of fluids helps in urinary tract infections. Women must keep cranberry juice in their homes and whenever they see any signs of an infection, they should start taking it twice a day to flush out the bacteria.

You can avoid a Urinary Tract infection after sexual intercourse by taking a single dose of antibiotics right after sex. Sex is also a trigger for Urinary Tract infection.

How To Avoid A UTI?

For keeping UTIs at bay, you must clean or wipe your genitals before having sex. You should take good amounts of water which is 8 to 10 glasses daily to flush out bacteria. Choose showers over baths. After having sexual intercourse, urinate after sex to flush out the bacteria that may have entered the urethra. If you use any birth control methods like diaphragms, condoms, or spermicidal jelly, consider trying another birth control method. Keep your genitals dry and use cotton panties and underwear.

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