Urinary tract infection or UTI is one of the most common infections affecting millions of women around the world. The infection can occur in the bladder, kidneys, small tube called as ureters and urethra. Often urinary bladder and urethra becomes the target for bacterial infection. More than 50% of women would have had UTI at some point of their life. It causes symptoms of burning pain while passing urine and frequent urination. UTI can be completely treated with medications.
Symptoms :
- Many times urinary tract infection goes unnoticed due to lack of symptoms. If the immunity is strong you may not even notice that you have had an infection.
- Some of the signs of UTI include persistent urge for urination, burning pain while urinating and foul smelling urine. The urine may not be normal as before and it can be cloudy or bright pink colored.
- For some women UTI can cause pelvic pain focused in the central pelvic region.
Causes Of Urinary Tract Infection :
Several factors and medications can trigger urinary tract infection. Very often UTI is caused by E. coli bacterium and Chlamydia. Bacteria enter the tract through vagina or through other sources and begin to grow in the bladder. Under normal condition, the body’s defense mechanism will fight and destroy the micro-organisms, but sometimes due to weakened immunity, bacteria can quickly grow multifold.
Bladder infection can occur when the bad bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract enters the bladder. Cystitis is the term given for bladder infection which can also be caused by sexual intercourse. Women’s anatomy increases the risk of cystitis due to the short distance between the opening of bladder and anus. Infection can easily spread from the anus/rectum into the vagina and travel towards the bladder.