UTI Series: How to Avoid Recurrent UTI

Doctors consider a person to have recurrent UTIs if they experience three infections in a year or two infections in six months.

Recurrent UTIs can have social, emotional, and financial consequences, including anxiety, depression, missed work, and the costs of multiple doctor visits and lab tests. Here are some steps you can take that can help avoid recurrent UTIs:

Talk with your doctor: If infections tend to occur after sexual activity, your doctor may prescribe a single dose of an antibiotic to be taken by both your partner and yourself. Postmenopausal women often benefit from vaginal estrogen products to help maintain local tissue health.

Practice good hygiene: In addition to regularly washing the outer genital area with a gentle soap, wiping from front to back after using the toilet helps prevent spreading bacteria from the anus to the urethra. Urinating after sex can also help flush out bacteria.

Drink plenty of water: Drinking plenty of fluids can help flush bacteria from bladder.

Reconsider your birth control method: Spermicide, diaphragm, or spermicide-lubricated condoms can contribute to frequent UTIs. If you get UTIs often and use one of the methods, consider switching.

Consider probiotics or cranberry juice: While the effectiveness of these products has not been proven, they may help decrease the number of UTI-causing bacteria that live in the vagina.

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