“Not Again!” — When UTIs won’t quit at midlife

This week, a patient came in reporting two awful urinary tract infections that she had this summer while traveling on vacation. She is in her 50s, postmenopausal, and fit and healthy. After having sex with her partner, she woke up with burning and pain with urination. She was treated for a urinary tract infection with antibiotics and felt better in a few days. She did fine for two weeks until they had sex again, when the same symptoms returned. Although antibiotics worked again, and quickly, at this point she felt consumed by the whole thing. She was unable to enjoy her vacation, and she was afraid to have sex. It took several weeks before she felt normal “down there.” If this sounds familiar, then you may be suffering from recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI). Recurrent UTIs are defined as either three episodes of infection in the previous 12 months or two episodes in the previous 6 months. Recurrent UTIs are common among both young healthy women and healthy women at midlife. Here’s why. There are many types of bacteria that normally live in the vagina and happily coexist. And they keep each other in check, like a mini-ecosystem. The hormone estrogen allows the “good” bacteria called Lactobacillus to thrive. These bacteria produce acid, which lowers the pH in the vagina, which helps keep the “bad” bacteria in check. For younger women, frequent sex is one of the biggest risk factors for a UTI. Sexual intercourse can cause the bacteria in the vagina and rectum...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Infectious diseases Women's Health Source Type: news