Have you ever wondered if you might have a Urinary Tract Infection. I'm Dr. Rena Malik,
Urologist and Pelvic Surgeon and today I'm going to talk about what symptoms may be a warning sign
of a urinary tract infection for women for men and what are some of the risk factors
for getting a urinary tract infection if you're new here I make videos on lots of
urological education content including bladder health sexual health and much much more.
so let's start with risk factors of a urinary tract infection they generally fall into
three categories genetic meaning it's something that runs in your family behavioral meaning
it's something that maybe you're doing in your lifestyle that might be causing infections or
lastly biologic meaning there's something wrong with the anatomy or with a disease process that
you might have as far as genetics we do know that if you have a family member with a history of
urinary tract infections you're more likely to get urinary tract infections also so biologic reasons
that you can get a urinary tract infections can include having a kidney or bladder stone having
a inability to empty your bladder completely so that urine doesn't flow through the urinary tract
having some anatomic problem with your bladder or the lower part of your urinary tract being
immunosuppressed or being on medications that make it difficult for you to fight infection
or having a history of diabetes also in post-menopausal women you undergo some changes
due to the lack of estrogen in your body which can change the flora or the environment of your
vagina and bladder as far as behavioral things there's lots of myths about this but the three
things that really do impact urinary tract infections are having sexual intercourse and
not actually the person you're not going to get it as a sexually transmitted infection
but actually having intercourse is a risk factor the second thing is using recent antibiotics can
put you at higher risk for getting infections and the third thing is using any sort of spermicide
whether you have it in your lubricant or condoms those things can put you at a higher risk for
urinary tract infections so you may not know this but 60 of women present with a urinary tract
infection at some point in their lifetime and one of the most common symptoms usually it's pain with
urination having to go to the bathroom more often and having to go more urgently like gotta go gotta
go sometimes you may also feel some super pubic pain or pain in the lower part of your belly or
flank pain where your kidneys are located pain on the upper side of your back and those are what
we call uncomplicated urinary tract infections if you're having a urinary tract infection with some
basic symptoms and you're a woman it's considered uncomplicated it becomes complicated however if
you are immunosuppressed if you are a man if you have any of those anatomic problems with your
bladder so that it's difficult to empty or there's stones that becomes a complicated infection or if
you have any anatomic abnormality in your urinary tract or if you develop an infection that's very
resistant to multiple antibiotics what that means is you may be at a higher risk for getting urinary
tract infections and the treatments that are offered may be less effective or you may require
a longer course of treatment if you have a more complicated infection you may get something like a
fever or blood in the urine and those should be warning signs that should make you go and see your
primary care doctor or a urologist to get further evaluation in men you may have similar presenting
symptoms to the ones that i described for women but the most common symptom is urethritis or pain
with urination you may also present with kind of vague pain symptoms like pain in the pelvic
region or the groin area or sometimes in elderly men the symptoms can be very vague like having a
little bit of altered mental status meaning that you're not your normal self and you're kind of
getting confused you may not want to eat or drink so it's really important if you're not feeling
like yourself or you're noticing that someone in your family who's more elderly is not acting
like their normal self that you could evaluate for the possibility of a urinary tract infection
bottom line if you're having any symptoms that are concerning to you please go ahead and talk
to your primary care doctor and if you are getting recurrent infections or you have any of
these risk factors for complicated urinary tract infection please come see a urologist so we can
help determine if you're having a urinary tract infection and help you get through your symptoms
thanks so much for watching as always remember to take care of yourself because you're worth it