Urinary tract infections

CONDITION

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) can affect the bladder or kidney. Symptoms of a bladder infection may include pain on urination (dysuria), lower abdominal/suprapubic pain, urinating frequently, passing urine that looks cloudy or smells bad. Sometimes an infection can make you feel unwell and can cause fever. A kidney infection is usually associated with loin pain also and will usually make you feel more unwell. Sometimes an infection can cause blood in the urine (haematuria).

Most infections can be treated with a short course of antibiotics, which will lead to an improvement in symptoms within a few days.

Some patients can experience recurrent urinary tract infections, which is usually defined as having at least at least three symptomatic and medically-confirmed infections over 12 month period. This is more common in women due to the female urethra being much shorter. Other causes of recurrent infections may include incomplete bladder emptying due to bladder outflow obstruction or benign prostatic hyperplasia, anatomical abnormalities in the urinary tract, impaired drainage of urine from the kidneys, urinary tract stones, sexual intercourse and having an impaired immune system from conditions such as diabetes.