Anyone ever have a urinary track infection?

[bigdaddy]

Since December 9th (The day I lost my insurance) I have had a urinary track infection. I'm in my mid-20s, a male, and didn't have sex for 2-3 weeks, so they really don't understand what caused it. The following Tuesday I went to a doctor, she gave me 6 pills to take for three days. It worked great, the pain went away, and I started peeing less.

So I have a few questions...

I still feel the need to pee a lot more than normal, it's better than before but still something. Is there any natural (aka no more visits to the doctors) remedies? I have been drinking insane amounts of cranberry juice.

How long do they normally last? I'm going away on the 28th and would like to be able to stand without peeing myself. I feel fine when I'm sitting, but I walk everywhere and I stand for 8 hours at my job.

Is it considered a STD or STI? Can I give it to someone else if I have sex?

 

[SmoothieX]

A urinary track, is that where the pee goes to race?

 

[Amaris]

Since December 9th (The day I lost my insurance) I have had a urinary track infection. I'm in my mid-20s, a male, and didn't have sex for 2-3 weeks, so they really don't understand what caused it. The following Tuesday I went to a doctor, she gave me 6 pills to take for three days. It worked great, the pain went away, and I started peeing less.

So I have a few questions...

I still feel the need to pee a lot more than normal, it's better than before but still something. Is there any natural (aka no more visits to the doctors) remedies? I have been drinking insane amounts of cranberry juice.

How long do they normally last? I'm going away on the 28th and would like to be able to stand without peeing myself. I feel fine when I'm sitting, but I walk everywhere and I stand for 8 hours at my job.

Is it considered a STD or STI? Can I give it to someone else if I have sex?

There's really nothing else you can do, save for drinking cranberry juice regularly. You can take D-Mannose, but you have to take it regularly, and it can get expensive (IMO). As for how long it lasts, the after-effects of a Urinary Tract infection can last a few weeks, and no, you can't pass it on to anyone else.

 

[Star_Trucker]

^ what they said. I've had UTI's before. They suck. Hope you get over it fast

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, I've only ever had one, and a couple days of drinking cranberry juice nailed it. If that doesn't do the trick, you'll probably need antibiotics. Best not to wait on something like that, either.

 

[Chaos Descending]

How thorough of a workup did the doctor do? Men generally don't get "urinary tract infections" as such, men generally get prostate infections, which suck more because they are harder to kill due to the dense nature of the prostate tissue.

I had a prostate/urinary tract infection last year, and it was not fun. My first doctor just called it a UTI and gave me a week's worth of antibiotics and called it good. That knocked down the burning/urgency for about a week or two and it "came back". The second doctor I saw (my regular doctor was out that week) urged me to follow up with a urologist and said "if the other guy didn't check your prostate, then I don't know what he's thinking. In a guy, it's ALWAYS the prostate", so he gave me the prostate check and a month's worth of antibiotics and I followed up with the urologist. The urologist told me the second guy was right, in men it's pretty much always the prostate. He confirmed the diagnosis of prostate infection, and I was basically good to go after the month of antibiotics. That is, the burning and discomfort was gone, but the "urge" to pee more frequently than normal with minimal resultant product lasted about another three weeks.

Three different doctors have told me, also, that taking a cranberry pill supplement is better (cheaper too) than drinking cranberry juice So, I've been doing just that ever since, three cranberry extract capsules daily. Also make sure you drink lots of water throughout the day to keep your bladder flushed out.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about what caused it. These types of infections can happen for any number of reasons. Heck, you might have just taken a pee with dirty hands one day.

 

[Kestra]

Yeah, I think that most cranberry juice has a lot of sugar in it and sugar actually makes the UTI worse somehow, so you might be doing yourself a disservice by drinking cranberry juice. Look for pills with whatever extract instead. I'm not sure if that helps or if it's just preventative though.

 

[Chaos Descending]

^^^ It's a little of both. Eating the pills routinely SHOULD prevent any bacterial infections from taking hold, and starting a routine of cranberry extract when you DO have an infection WILL help decrease the amount of time it will take to recover.

 

[An Officer]

You can get organic concentrated unsweetened cranberry juice in Whole Foods/whatever your local version of that is, should be more potent. Just dilute it in a little water, or add it to another juice. I actually like the taste of cranberry juice when you squeeze a little lime in there and top it up with sparkling water. Very refreshing.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

An untreated or ineffectively treated UTI can last a long time. Since the first round of meds -- I assume they were an antibiotic -- didn't do the trick, I would suggestion going back to the doctor (sorry, I know that's not what you want to hear) and asking them to do a urine culture. That will tell them exactly which antibiotics your particular bug will/won't respond to.

I take a cranberry extract tablet every day to prevent further infections, but they didn't seem to help when I already had one.

 

[bigdaddy]

There's really nothing else you can do, save for drinking cranberry juice regularly. You can take D-Mannose, but you have to take it regularly, and it can get expensive (IMO). As for how long it lasts, the after-effects of a Urinary Tract infection can last a few weeks, and no, you can't pass it on to anyone else.

Thank you Santa. I feel a hell of a lot better today then I did two weeks ago. I drink insane amounts of cranberry juice, but 64oz of it has 240 grams of sugar. However I drink a lot of water too.

^ what they said. I've had UTI's before. They suck. Hope you get over it fast

I have a bladder issue, so at first I thought it was something worse, but they checked and there was nothing worse going on by what they can tell. So that's something.

Yeah, I've only ever had one, and a couple days of drinking cranberry juice nailed it. If that doesn't do the trick, you'll probably need antibiotics. Best not to wait on something like that, either.

I took the meds, they got rid of the burning pain, but I was still leaking a little, or feeling like i was. I think I'm getting over it now. *knock of wood*

An untreated or ineffectively treated UTI can last a long time. Since the first round of meds -- I assume they were an antibiotic -- didn't do the trick, I would suggestion going back to the doctor (sorry, I know that's not what you want to hear) and asking them to do a urine culture. That will tell them exactly which antibiotics your particular bug will/won't respond to.

I take a cranberry extract tablet every day to prevent further infections, but they didn't seem to help when I already had one.

I don't have any time, or money, to go back to the doctor right now. I'm going to drink a ton and hope it improves.

And guys get them too. All it is is a bacteria in your urethra, the tube pee comes out of. Women get them more because their tube is shorter and closer to their ass, and the ass can have bacteria that causes them. But you can get them from wearing the wrong type of underwear, and something goes in the urethra and creates germs. Should stick to cotton boxers if you are a guy. :Lol:

And thanks everyone!

 

[milo bloom]

I got a prostate infection a few years back. Wife didn't have one and there was nobody else (the family doctor of many, many years even asked) so I'm still not sure where it came from. He put me on Cipro and it went away fairly quickly.

That visit also led to this conversation:

Doctor: "So, take that prescription and you'll be okay, make sure you do your regular prostate exams..."
Me: "Actually, I've never had a prostate exam."
Doctor: "How old are you now?"
Me: "34"
Doctor: "...."
Me: "...."
Doctor: "I'm going to need you to go ahead and take your pants off..."

 

[Chaos Descending]

I got a prostate infection a few years back. Wife didn't have one ...

I'm glad to hear that your wife didn't have a prostate infection.

 

[milo bloom]

I got a prostate infection a few years back. Wife didn't have one ...

I'm glad to hear that your wife didn't have a prostate infection.

Right then, she did not have a corresponding "pee pee place" infection.

 

[Trekker4747]

I started getting one last summer when I got out of the hospital for surgery. (Getting a catheter increases the likelihood of getting one.) It was mild at first but drinking cranberry juice nipped it in the bud before it got bad. If you ever get a UTI that's really the ideal thing to do, get straight, organic, unsweetened cranberry juice. It'll clear it up pretty easily if you catch it early enough.

 

[bigdaddy]

I started getting one last summer when I got out of the hospital for surgery. (Getting a catheter increases the likelihood of getting one.) It was mild at first but drinking cranberry juice nipped it in the bud before it got bad. If you ever get a UTI that's really the ideal thing to do, get straight, organic, unsweetened cranberry juice. It'll clear it up pretty easily if you catch it early enough.

I'll go see if I can find some better juice because I think all the sugar is messing with my sleep. I sleep for 2-3 hours, awake 2-3, sleep a few awake a few. It's annoying.

 

[Trekker4747]

Contrary to popular belief, sugar has no impact on a persons hyperactivity or energy. Your body burns sugar for fuel as it is needed any excess gets stored as fat.

Your inability to sleep at night could be for a lot of reasons, none of which having to do with sugar. As a matter of fact it seems "normal." To me, your body will regularly go in and out of sleep through the night as you go through the various sleep cycles. You just now seem to remember waking up rather than it being done subconsciously.

 

[BlazePin]

^ what they said. I've had UTI's before. They suck. Hope you get over it fast

Same