Everything You Need to Know About UTIs, From Prevention to Treatment

Throbbing lower back pain that rivals a bad stomachache, a burning sting when you pee, cloudy and strange-smelling urine, and the bloody toilet paper that gives it away. Hello, urinary tract infection, we meet again.

If you’re a woman and you’ve never had a UTI before, you can thank your lucky stars. UTIs are 10 times more common among women than men, and most women will have at least one UTI in their lifetime. It’s estimated that 150 million UTIs occur worldwide each year, accounting for $6 billion in health care costs. And because a urinary tract infection is the gift that keeps on giving, each time you get a UTI, your chances of getting another one increase. In fact, 1 in 5 women who get a UTI will experience a recurrent infection, and some women have 3 or more UTIs a year.

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So, why are women so much more likely to get a UTI? We talk to Dr. Vanessa Cullins, Planned Parenthood’s vice president of external medical affairs, to get the scoop. She tells us: “UTIs happen when bacteria gets into your urinary system. A woman’s urethra is much shorter than a man’s, because it doesn’t travel all the way through a penis. This makes it easier for bacteria to make its way into the bladder. In addition, a woman’s urethra is closer to her anus than a man’s is. This makes it easier for germs to move from the anus to the urethra and cause an infection.”

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Since a woman’s urethra is so close to her vagina and anus, one of the easiest ways to get a UTI is from having sex. Sex, being the imperfect thing that it is, gets messy, and bodily fluids can and will bring bacteria to places it shouldn’t be. The best thing anyone can do after having sex is pee. It will flush any bacteria out of your urethra, which will help you avoid an infection.

That said, it’s pretty easy to get a UTI in general. Dr. Cullins warns, “Anything that brings bacteria in contact with the vulva and/or urethra can cause a UTI. This can happen when germs enter the urethra during sex, unwashed hands touching genitals, or even when toilet water back splashes.” Yeah, you can get a UTI from the bacteria in toilet water back splash. Shudders.

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