Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are very common among women of all ages, and can occur for many different reasons.
In teenagers, they may result from incomplete bladder emptying.
Once young women become sexually active, they can be related to sexual intercourse.
After women go through menopause, they can be at increased risk as well.
A common problem we see is that women have been told, or are under the impression, that they have UTIs when they actually do not.
Because of these issues, we are very thorough in our evaluation to identify risk factors for UTIs but also to make sure that UTIs are truly present.
We have seen that many women suffer from UTI issues because access to medical care after hours and on weekends is both costly and inconvenient.
That’s why we have created multiple programs to make sure our patients have better access to care during these inopportune occasions.
When we see you for a UTI, we go through several steps.
First, we review prior urinalysis and culture data to make sure that you actually suffer from UTIs. Surprisingly, there are multiple conditions that can have frequency and burning with urination that are not related to infection. We make sure that accurate diagnoses have been made and antibiotics are not being prescribed unnecessarily.
Second, we take a careful urinary symptom history so that we can identify any contributing risk factors related to urinary dysfunction.
Third, we routinely perform additional testing to rule out other less common bladder infections or anatomical problems.
Once that is complete, we determine a UTI program with easy access to care that is right for your individual case.
Urinary tract infection
Some common symptoms are: sharp/burning “knife-like” pain before, during or after urination, and frequent urination.