Worst pain

Testing for a UTI is pretty simple – a doctor or nurse can ‘‘dipstick’’ your urine, which will indicate whether or not infection is likely to be present.

Often this will be enough to initiate treatment, providing you aren’t unwell in any other way.

A fresh urine sample is important to give the best result, and should ideally be ‘‘mid stream’’, which means letting the first part of your urine go into the toilet before collecting the next bit.

This hopefully avoids getting too many bugs from your skin into the sample.

If there is anything complicated about your symptoms (for example, you are getting recurrent problems, are elderly or have allergies to certain antibiotics), your doctor will likely suggest sending your sample to the lab so they can find out exactly what bacteria is causing the problem, and recommend a specific antibiotic that will work.

For more complex cases, your doctor may suggest blood tests and ultrasound scans to check the kidneys and urinary tract are looking and functioning as they should.

For anyone with a recent change in sexual partner, or any risk of sexually transmitted infection, a sexual health check should also be done to rule out that as a cause of your symptoms.

Treating UTIs is usually straightforward:

Go to a health provider

This is important, even if you have had UTIs before and think it will go away on its own. The majority of UTIs require treatment with antibiotics, and if left alone there is a risk the infection will spread to the kidneys – this is called pyelonephritis and is far more serious, requiring treatment with high dose antibiotics and often hospital admission. The earlier you catch your UTI, the less likely this is to happen.

Drink plenty of fluids

Being dehydrated makes you more likely to get a UTI. Having plenty of fluid on board will do the reverse, and will ‘‘flush through’’ the kidney system. Some people find cranberry juice helpful, and for others a mixture of salts called Ural is useful at alleviating symptoms, but there is no scientific evidence that either is sufficient on their own to get rid of an infection.

Take your antibiotics as recommended

Your doctor will give you the most appropriate antibiotic for your age and stage of life, and can change the dose or drug choice if your symptoms aren’t resolving quickly. Make sure you finish the full course, and go back for more testing if your symptoms either don’t settle or come back again.

If you are getting UTIs associated with either the menopause or sex, talk to your doctor about things you can try.

A course of low dose preventative antibiotics can help avoid recurrent infection, and using some topical oestrogen if you are menopausal can make the genital tissues less fragile and prone to infection. For more information, visit healthnavigator.org.nz