5 Best Practices for Avoiding Painful Urinary Tract Infections

Going through one urinary tract infection (UTI) is enough to let you know you’d rather not experience another. Unfortunately, up to 80% of women develop at least one UTI during their lives, and for 30-40% of women, UTIs become a recurring problem.

Whether you’ve had one or several UTIs, your goal is likely the same — to prevent the next one.

For expert advice, we turn to the team of urogynecology specialists at Female Health Associates of North Texas, which is led by board-certified urogynecologist Dr. Jeffrey Hantes. Urogynecology is a specialty that focuses on pelvic floor and bladder issues, and UTIs certainly check that second box.

So, with an eye toward preventing further UTIs, we want to explain how they occur and best practices for preventing these painful infections.

UTI basics

A UTI occurs when bacteria make their way up your urethra and into your bladder. Women are far more susceptible to UTIs thanks in large part to anatomy — the urethral opening is close to the anus, which can lead to cross-contamination of bacteria. As well, a woman’s urethra is much shorter, so bacteria can make their way to her bladder more easily.

When the bacteria get into your bladder and create an infection, the symptoms often come on quickly and include:

• Pain with urination
• Frequent urination 
• An urge to urinate, even if you’ve just gone
• Low back pain
• Cloudy and foul-smelling urine

As you can see by this symptom list, it’s little wonder that UTIs lead to about 8 million doctor visits each year in the United States.

The good news is that, when treated promptly, UTIs clear in a day or two with a course of antibiotics. If you wait, however, the infection can spread to your kidneys, which is a more serious health issue.

Strategies to keep UTIs from striking

Now let’s get into the heart of this discussion and review a few key practices for preventing UTIs, which include:

1. Wiping from front to back

Whenever you go to the bathroom, it’s very important that you only wipe from front to back to avoid the cross-contamination between your anus and your urethra that we discussed earlier.

1. Urinate after sex

Sexual intercourse is another way that bacteria can spread and gain access to your urethra. So, urinate immediately after sex to flush out any bacteria.

1. Stay hydrated

If you’re prone to frequent UTIs, you need to take hydration very seriously. The more fluids you drink, the more you flush your urinary tract, and that's a good thing. So, aim for very light yellow pee — the darker the urine, the more you should drink.

1. Consider hormone creams

If you’re postmenopausal, you’re more prone to UTIs because your vaginal environment loses healthy, protective bacteria. In addition, the loss of estrogen can affect your ability to fully empty your bladder, which is a fast track to urinary infections.

A great way to restore health to your vaginal tissues is through topical estrogen creams. For a more systematic approach, you can try other forms of hormone replacement therapy, and we can discuss which ones will best meet your goals.

1. Treat UTIs quickly and completely

A lot of UTI recurrence happens within six months to a year after the first one, so it’s important that you fully treat any UTI. This means taking all of your antibiotics and then immediately implementing the tips above.

If you have more questions about how to prevent UTIs from recurring (or occurring in the first place), please contact us at our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to schedule a consultation.