Women's Urinary Tract Infections: Why So Common?

The sudden urgency. The painful burning while emptying the bladder. And heaven forbid intercourse! This is the emotional roller coaster of the female Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) – the most frequent women’s medical complaint after flu. Urinary tract infections are also called bladder infections or “cystitis”.

An estimated 60% of all women worldwide (11% in the U.S. alone), as compared with only 2% of men know what urinary tract infections feel like. Once a UTI attacks, more than one-third of its victims are likely to experience another within a year, some later, and for a certain percentage it becomes chronic due to factors discussed below under “Symptomatic Urinary Tract Infections”.

To compound this discomfort for women, urinary tract infections are usually followed by horribly itchy vaginal yeast infections caused by antibiotics given for UTI’s. This is because of ineffective or incomplete treatment the first time around, or assuming that the UTI itself was the cause of this misery.

Urinary Tract Infections are often not just Urinary Tract Infections!

Treating a urinary tract infection as its own root cause without seeking possible underlying reasons is a medical error. The “no questions asked” policy about a woman’s lifestyle eliminates clues as to how she got the infection and increases the chances of repeat UTI’s.

This leads to over-prescribing antibiotics which may or may not work on the specific bacteria of a urinary tract infection, or may have been unnecessary at all! Many women don’t know enough about UTI’s to volunteer more information. So we’ve divided the reasons for UTI’s into two categories:

First-Source UTI – First urinary tract infection from a single source.
Symptomatic UTI – Recurring urinary tract infection from an ongoing source or additional health condition.

1. Common Reasons for First-Source Urinary Tract Infections:

• “Honeymoon UTI” – First time and frequent intercourse during honeymoon; very active sex life; or sex after long times without. The male organ rubs against the bladder walls and can be highly irritating to tissues, inviting bacteria.
• Diaphragm used for birth control – The rim of the diaphragm can scrape the bladder neck, once again allowing bacteria.
• The sexually transmitted disease “Chlamydia”.
• Allergy to a lubricant, spermicide, or feminine body spray.
• Bacteria from soaking in hot tubs or bubble baths.
• Fecal waste with E. coli bacteria travels into the urethra or vagina.

2. Common Reasons for Symptomatic Urinary Tract Infections:

• Lowered immune system from chemotherapy or systemic disease like HIV/AIDS, Lupus, Diabetes.
• Continual use of the spermicidal ingredient nonoxynol-9 in sponges and diaphragm gel is famous for causing UTI’s.
• Not urinating or washing well before and after sex. Both should be done each time.
• Previous incorrect antibiotic treatment, or unfinished antibiotics because the woman felt better. Either causes bacteria to become resistant and resilient. See our interesting case study: “Sandra’s Story: The Frustrating Cycle of UTI’s, Yeast Infections and Antibiotics”.
• High intestinal yeast content, generally an overgrowth of the “bad” bacteria, candida albicans. This yeast overgrowth could have started from the death of good stomach bacteria during antibiotic dosage. Because the good intestinal bacteria are gone, the woman is not protected from recurring UTI’s.