HOUSTON – About half of women in the U.S. get urinary tract infections at some point in their life. About 10% of men can get them.
Symptoms, according to Houston Metro Urologists
- A strong, constant urge to urinate
- Burning or pain during urination
- Frequent urination that only passes small amounts of urine each time
- Cloudy or strong-smelling urine
- Bright pink, red or brownish color urine can indicate that blood is present in the urine
- For women, pelvic pain is a symptom
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How to treat UTIs
A vaccine called Uromune is under review now to stop recurring urinary tract infections, which cause thousands of men and women to suffer with painful urination every year.
“It’s still in the process of development and making sure that it’s safe for the population. So, it is very exciting news, but I personally have not used the vaccine yet. It’s not available in our clinics just quite yet, but I do think it is in the near future,” said Dr. Hannah Pham with Houston Metro Urologists.
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Right now, the best way to treat a UTI is with oral antibiotics. However, to determine the type of medication you need, she said you need a doctor to test your urine first.
“It’s important for the patient to come in and get urine analysis and eventually urine culture so we know exactly what bacteria we’re treating and that we give the patient the appropriate antibiotic,” Dr. Pham said. “If we just give patients any antibiotic blindly or if they just don’t take the antibiotic correctly, then it could lead to bacterial resistance and then later down the line, it makes it difficult to treat infections.”
How to prevent UTIs
Over-the-counter remedies will work, according to Pham.
“I always recommend to patients cranberry supplements and you’ve probably heard drinking cranberry juice helps prevent urinary tract infections. It’s true, it’s been shown in our studies. But we do recommend the pills just because there’s less sugars. But taking a daily cranberry pill can help keep those urinary tract infections away,” Dr. Pham said.
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In women who get more than three UTIs in a year, Dr. Pham said they may need an evaluation to ensure there’s no anatomical abnormality that can be treated.
UTIs are a serious since the infection can make its way up to the kidneys and into the bloodstream.
