I just woke up to find what has to be about my eighth UTI in the last year. I do everything right - drink a lot of water, pee after sex, wipe from front to back - everything. Now that school’s out, I don’t have access to my cheap university health care, and I’m not set up with a doctor here at home. I’ve heard about a lot of over the counter treatments…cranberry juice, vitamin C, gallons of water, etc, but none of them have ever worked very well for me. Anybody have some experience here? I asked my doctor last time about getting an extra dose of antibiotics to carry around, but she didn’t seem too keen on that. I would love some advice here, or at least to know I’m not the only freak out here with a wimpy urethra. Thanks folks.
I just want to point out that the cranberry juice thing doesn’t work as a cure, it’s more of a preventive measure. You just can’t start chugging it when you feel a tingle in your uni. Incorporate cranberry juice into your diet as a sort of a “glass a day keeps the UTI’s away” and see how that works.
Do you take baths rather than showers, or use a hot tub? or if you do take baths, do you put anything in the water (other than your own sweet self, that is)? Bathwater is generally the right temperature to develop huge, cat-sized bacteria, so switch to showers if this is the case. And NEVER use bubble bath, bath salts, etc.
I’ve learned my lesson about baths (and burned a model of Mr. Bubble in effigy), so it’s only showers for me now.
Man, and the BF and I had been planning to go to the amusement park today too…this will bring a whole new dimension to rollercoasters, I’m sure.
Speaking as a doc, I’d really recommend you get evaluated for why you get recurrent infections. I’d wanna know the culture and sensitivity results of each infection (ie do you get the same bug over and over, or different ones, and what drugs kill them off), along with a thorough pelvic exam (yeah, I know, I hate doing them as much as women hate getting them), and probably an IVP (intravenous pyelogram) to look for any structural abnormalities. A family doc could start you down this road, or you could find yourself a good urologist. While its not unusual for a woman to get a few UTI’s in her lifetime, what with the distance from the outside world to the bladder being so much shorter than the comparable anatomy for a guy, recurrences like you describe really cry out for a closer look!
I used to suffer from chronic UTIs, my doctor even had me on a prophylactic dosage of antibiotics and I would STILL get them.
All my problems went away when I stopped using birth control with spermacides. (nonoxynol-9?)
I don’t know if this applies to you, but I thought I’d throw it out there just FWIW. Good luck.
I’ll second Sue’s comment about the spermicide. I had big problems with both UTIs and yeast infections while using condoms with spermicide. Since switching methods, I’ve had none of the latter and only one of the former.
If you can’t stomach the cranberry juice, I’ve had good preventative success with cranberry tablets. (This is strictly anecdotal evidence, IANAD!)
I just wanted to point out that Attrayant’s post was correct that Cranberry juice is an effective preventive measure to avoid UTI’S, but only when drinking non-sweetened Cranberry juice. Regular cranberry juice is loaded with too many preservatives & sugar to make a major difference to the bacteria in one’s bladder.
If you can’t stand the bitterness of non sweetened cranberry juice than a good alternative to drinking cranberry juice is drinking cranberry tea, but not just any over the counter cranberry tea. The kinds that you would find in health stores like GNC would be the ideal types.
Whatever you do you want to find any kind of alternative to using antibiotics because as you probably already know is that over use of them will lead to your body growing a resistance to them. Thus causing you to use stronger & stronger antibiotics each time.
[nitpick]
Your body does not build a resistance to antibiotics…the bacteria do. This is also why you should ALWAYS finish all the pills in an antibiotic scrip, even if you feel better.
[/nitpick]
I’ve discovered that I’m more prone to developing a UTI when I hold my bladder for too long. I go to the bathroom pretty frequently and if I’m ever in a situation where I have to hold it until the point it starts to get painful I expect to feel the early stages of a bladder infection. I normally drink a lot of water but will up my intake at that point.
I’ve tried cranberry pills but unfortunately the ones I got are shaped like cranberries (i.e. round) and get stuck in my throat. Even if I don’t choke on them it’s seems like they take forever to work their way down my esophagus.
I hope this isn’t too graphic but a doctor once told me of another preventative measure that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and that is if the woman is on the receiving end of oral sex, her partner should brush his/her teeth before-hand.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sue Duhnym *
**
Thank you Sue for picking up my mental blunder
Golly. This is a little alarming. My greatest hobby is taking long hot bubblebaths…I mean for like 25 to 30 minutes at a time. I COLLECT bubble bath and salts and fizzies and oil and all that.
I’m 28 and I’ve never had a UTI. Am I just some sort of bath oil mutant?
signed, nervous in the windy city,
jarbaby
You’re alright, jarbaby; only people who are prone to these infections should avoid bath additives. So, bubble away!
Wear cotton underwear, I had a problem with UTIs until I stopped wearing things that don’t breathe, like nylon underwear and pantyhose.
Also, have your SO get checked out, as he could be carrying whatever is giving you problems without showing any symptoms himself
I have to agree with (as per usual) the wise counsel of Qadcop. It is also possible that your UTIs have been misdiagnosed and you can read up about (shudder) interstitial cystitis. Still lots of black magic and moonshine used for this condition, even by docs.
I’ve heard that being on the Pill can cause a succeptibility to UTIs. Did you perchance start the Pill about a year ago, or change types?
My wife gets repeated UTIs. Her doctor gave her antibiotics that she can take when she feels the need. If your doctor won’t give you antibiotics to have on hand when you need them, you might consider changing doctors.
I’m hoping now that my wife got her tubes tied and is off the Pill, the UTIs will stop, both to keep her from suffering and out of scientific curiosity.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sengkelat *
My wife gets repeated UTIs. Her doctor gave her antibiotics that she can take when she feels the need. If your doctor won’t give you antibiotics to have on hand when you need them, you might consider changing doctors.
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If your doctor won’t give you antibiotics to keep on hand when you think you need them, you probably have a good doctor.
I knew a lady with this one time & she said her gyno asked her to come in every week & he would stretch (widen) her urinary tube with a tool. She said it wasn’t worth it to keep coming back for it so she gave up. Thats another solution for ya.
I had a bad problem with UTIs, to the point that my doctor gave me a prescription for Macrobid (an antibiotic) to be used prophylactically - i.e. whenever I did something like sex that I knew would trigger an infection. I did have a problem with taking antibiotics this often.
I found out that the E. Coli that causes UTIs prefers an acidic environment. I also determined that another trigger for me was eating sugar in the evenings. I started doing the following things:
1 - Drink lots of water
2 - Take calcium at night (one calcium label I read said that calcium makes urine alkaline)
3 - Stop taking Vitamin C at night
4 - Don’t eat sugary things at night.
Since I started this, I went from almost constantly having an infection, to having an infection maybe once or twice a year, and then only if I violate two or more of the rules above (or one rule and have a lot of sex!) YMMV, but none of those things are bad for you.
There is an OTC pain reliever for UTIs - I don’t remember what the name is, but the pharmacist should. It has the advantage of turning your urine a bright orangey-yellow. (It also has the disadvantage of making me severely sick to my stomach sigh )
BTW, I don’t do cranberry at all - I can’t stomach the liquid form enough to drink it and never had any luck with the pill form (supplements are getting notorious for not actually containing what they say they do). I take bubble baths every day - in fact, the last really bad infection I had was in England where I stayed at several places with only showers. But there I often didn’t drink any water during the day, and I was having a lot of sex.
Wow folks, thanks for all the great info.
The current problem is just about cleared up, thanks to some antibiotics and that stuff that makes your pee turn orange (boy is that ever neat stuff!). Probably won’t be able to see a urologist until the fall, but since my summer job takes very, very far away from the bf I probably won’t have a whole lot of trouble anyway.
I still can’t believe I got all these tips so quickly. I’ll hafta de-lurk more often.