Women Campus | Hello beautiful!: A UT What? How You Get a UTI & How to Know If You Have a UTI

You may have heard of them before. Perhaps you’ve even had one (don’t be ashamed—even your cat and dog can get them). UTIs, or urinary tract infections, are fairly common and can be contracted in a number of ways. What’s not as common, however, is the knowledge about how to prevent, and how to cure them.

Lucky for me, I have a UTI expert living right in my house. My dad, Craig Rinder, a practicing Urologist in Vermont, helped me clear up a few of the myths about UTIs.

1. Having sex can give you a UTI: Fact—Sort of

Thankfully, it’s not the actual act of having sex that gives you a UTI (yes, rejoice). However, intercourse can allow bacteria to reach the urinary tract, which can then cause a UTI. Just look at Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love. Two straight weeks of nothing but sex in Bali with her new lover, and she’s running to the medicine woman with an infection. What should she have done to skip out on that burning sensation? “Empty the bladder before and after sex,” says Dr. Rinder. “This will help flush out any bacteria that could cause an infection.” Rinder suggests heading to the bathroom within an hour.

2. If you wear cotton high-waisted grandma panties you won’t get a UTI: Myth

To put it simply, Rinder says, “It doesn’t matter what kind of underwear you wear.”

3. Drinking lots of fluids or cranberry juice can cure your UTI: Myth

“The theory with this myth is that the cranberry juice will somehow acidify the urine and make the infection go away,” says Rinder. “Also, the thought is that drinking water will flush the infection out of their system. This doesn’t work, however, because a UTI is a bacterial infection, and water and cranberry juice don’t have significant antibacterial properties.” Once you have an infection, antibiotics are the only solution.

4. UTIs are more common in women: Fact

Unfortunately, not only is this true, but Rinder says with the usual sexual activities of college age women, us 20-something females are only even more likely to contract a UTI. UTIs are more common in women because our urinary tract is more, well, open. “In women, the urethra is much shorter,” says Rinder. “Bacteria can easily gain access to the urethra where it is able to grow and create an infection.”

5. UTI’s are a serious health risk: Mostly Myth

Yes, it burns every time you pee, but the world is not going to end. “Most UTI’s are more of a nuisance than a danger,” says Rinder. “Only if they are left untreated can they be life threatening.” If a UTI is left untreated the infection usually only gets worse. “It can ascend into the kidneys causing a kidney infection,” says Rinder. Moral of the story: if you think you have a UTI, it’s best to get it checked out ASAP.

6. Any burning feeling while peeing is a UTI: Myth

Like a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not always a square, painful urination doesn’t always mean you have a UTI. “Not everyone who has these symptoms (painful urination or feeling like you have to pee all the time) has a UTI,” says Rinder. “A diagnosis has to be made by a doctor analyzing a urine sample.”

If you are diagnosed with a UTI, your doctor will provide you with antibiotics to help rid your body of the bacteria causing the infection. Once you start taking the pills you should start feeling better within 24 hours, and the UTI should clear up in about seven to 10 days.

If you have any of these symptoms, make sure to head to a doctor to get tested for a UTI. Because no one wants any of these symptoms for little more than a few minutes.

Symptoms of a UTI: