It is among the most common infections which a very large population suffers from. This infection affects your urinary system. Urinary system includes your kidney, ureter, urethra and urinary bladder. Urine is basically the by product of the body. Blood passes through the kidney and kidney filters out urine out of blood and then the urine get stored in urinary bladder, once urinary bladder gets full then urine is passed out of body through urethra. If any stuff involved in urinary system gets infected then it is considered as urinary tract infection (UTI).
Is it a common infection?
Urinary tract infection is among the most common infections across the world. Over 10 million people gets Urinary Tract Infection each year. It is more common infection among the people assigned female at birth. Almost each AFAB (assigned female at birth) suffers UTI at some point of their life. A huge male population is also at risk of UTI.
Symptoms and Causes.
Urinary Tract Infection may cause a variety of symptoms, some of them are
- Pain in abdomen.
- Bad smell from pee.
- Pain in lower back.
- Frequent urination.
- Foamy Urine.
- Frequent urge of urination.
- Burning sensation in penis.
- Pain in penis while urinating.
- Blood in your pee.
- Fever.
- Chills
How one can get Urinary Tract Infection?
Most of the time microorganisms like E. coli bacteria are the main cause of urinary tract infection. Any how these bacteria enter the host body through urethra and may infect whole urinary system including Kidney, Ureter, Urethra and Urinary Bladder. AMAB (assigned male at birth) carries a lower risk of urinary tract infection as compared to AFAB (assigned female at birth) as AFAB has a smaller urethra as compared to AMAB also the urethra opens close to anus in AFAB and E.coli bacteria from large intestine are carried to anus through waste materials and get in contact with urethra proceeding to UTI.
Risk Factors of UTI.
The very important factor is that whether you are assigned male or female at birth, if you are assigned female then you carry a higher chance of having UTI. About half of female population suffers from UTI at any point of their lifetime while those who are assigned male carry a lower risk of UTI. Only 1 in 100 is expected to get UTI once in a lifetime. Various risk factors are as follows.
- Being sexually active- If any of the partner is having UTI and they go through intercourse then the chances of transmission increases.
- Being diabetic.
- Pregnancy-Many hormonal changes increase the chance of UTI.
- Using diaphragm.
- Enlarged prostrate.
- Stones in Urinary tract.
- Masturbation-During masturbation one may use fingers and the bacteria which is already present on the finger gets transmitted to the tract.
Diagnosis of UTI.
For the diagnosis of UTI, the health care provider may ask you to go through various urine tests and ultrasound. Ultrasound is technique which enable us to see the pictures of internal organs using sound waves.
Treatment of UTI.
Many time the problems resolve on their own but in critical infections the healthcare provider may ask you to take some antibiotics and may prescribe some other drugs to manage your symptoms.
