Recurrent UTI due to sex

[ShoehornSheryl]

So I tended to get on average 2 UTIs a year until the last year or so when I now seem to be getting one every few months. It is ALWAYS linked to sex.

I follow alllll of the advice, showering, peeing etc etc but every now and then I get caught out. I have d-mannose but after a couple of months of no utis i figured the usual showering etc was enough so stopped taking it as a matter of course.

anyway, it seems like i have another one brewing (sex last night).

i know I have to have antibiotics but I’m scared the doctor is going to want to refer me for further testing. I don’t want further tests. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me, due to it always being sex related. It’s just something in susceptible to. I also don’t want to take low dose antibiotics for a period of time nor every time we have sex (sometimes we are having sex 5 days a week! It seems too much to be on Antibiotics basically all of the time).

does anyone have any advice? Has anyone been in this position and successfully just got as hoc treatment as and when needed?

You haven't said your age but if you're menopausal or post menopause then Estriol Cream could be what you need. It contains oestrogen which helps to soften vaginal tissue, and it also makes sex more comfortable.

You need to get it on prescription as it costs ££s to buy! Definitely a lifesaver though. Just follow the instructions.
If you're doing everything else it's worth a try.

@Lifeinlists im mid 30’s so neither. Sex is perfectly comfortable, just get utis

I was given the option to either take a full course of antibiotics as needed, or one dose every time after sex. My problems did stopp eventually, but it was more than 1.5 years that I was susceptible to it.

Sounds like you just need to start the d-manose up again ?

@User7567 thaha good to know. It all started after my first uti when I was pregnant so we are 12 years in now, sure they won’t stop that quickly sadly.

@solice84 ah but was the d mannose helping or was it everything else that was working and I was just spending money for the sake of it?

Only one way to find out
I've heard good things about it and I think I've managed to dodge a few uti in the early stages by taking it

This ^^

I was prone to UTIs years ago, also always sex related. A doctor told me ‘when you think you’ve finished peeing, pee a bit more’. Along with the usual before and after, this helped a l lot!

@ShoehornSheryl
Out of interest do you suffer with cold hands/feet and are you flexible/bendy?
I ask, as I’ve suffered with utis all my life and now think it may be related to undiagnosed EDS.

@solice84 ive started taking it today to see if it can clear it. But it was costing a bloody fortune taking it for the sake of it.

@Foolosophy i shall try!

@Didyousaysomethingdarling i do have cold hands and feet but other than hypermobile shoulders, I’m not especially bendy! My daughter is though!

I had this for years! It was horrendous! It turned out to be food intolerance for me. Life changing! Try getting rid of all the usual suspects (meaning your diet will be very very boring for a while) and then reintroduce them one by one to find the culprit.

It can take around 3 months of boring diet to fix your insides.

Intolerances can cause your mucous membranes to falter and leave your insides linings exposed

I had this for a long time, it started as UTIs concurrently, just one after another within a couple of weeks. It was horrible! I did take a year course or prophylactic antibiotics and that helped hugely. Once that finished, I started getting them after sex so I had one dose after sex each time and this helped.

I have a missing valve in my kidney so often get "backflush" which can make my simple UTI a kidney infection, so it was absolutely fully worth it for me to take the antibiotics as a prophylaxis rather than try and battle it when it happens. But totally understand not wanting to do this.

What I will say is don't discount it. I'm now absolutely fine and have no issues with sex or UTIs. So it got me through a time it was bad, and now it's absolutely fine. If you do go down that route it may well not be forever. It could fix the problem altogether. And probably better that than continuously taking full courses for active infection.

Hope you get it sorted, it's bloody horrible and sounds like you're doing all the right things!

@bottomsup12 what was your intolerance? If it’s an intolerance it wouldn’t just be after ex would it? And honestly given we have sex on average 5x a week, and I get UTI’s every few months (4 this time), would it be likely to be that?

@FlakyAquaQuoter thank you for sharing. That’s really reassuring. It would be so amazing not to have to deal with this any more. Pre pregnancy honestly I had no issue. So having to wash before and after, pee, take medication etc. to prevent one really annoys me!

I go through bouts of interstitial cystitis, and the GP told me to throw the D mannose in the bin - it's apparently just as much a myth as cranberry juice, and he said if there was medical evidence that the NHS would recommend/prescribe them!

I've found it's worse at certain times of the month, and I have to be really careful with certain foods like beetroot. It helped me keeping a food diary, and if I overdo sugar (thankfully I avoid mostly as I'm diabetic) or carbs, then I'm in trouble.

@SpanielPaws interesting you mention diet, as we’ve just been on holiday and my diet has been absolute shite.

funnily enough I was recommended d mannose by a doctor! And it does mention it on the nhs website I think.

I have the same issue and I do take mannose if I feel any tingling, but what really seems to prevent them for me is using condoms. I haven’t had a full blown infection for 18 months. Prior to that I’d get them often.

@user1469661475 we have always used condoms :/

I take an antibiotic after sex. I've gone from 6-8 infections a year to maybe one a year

Every time you poo wash your bum with soap really well (intrusively) and rinse well, backwards. Wee and rinse front to back with cool or cold water after sex.

I have a embedded uti, it started just after sex until one day I couldn't get rid of it. I've been on antibiotics for a year!!

Honestly if you are getting positive tests for uti bacteria it's best to get it treated so it doesn't get chronic.

Are you providing samples to the GP (prior to antibiotic treatment) for culture growth testing to see what bacteria (if any) are causing it?

The thing with recurrent UTIs is it can be an uncleared original infection. Bacteria in your bladder can burrow into the lining (epithelial cells) and these bacteria are then unaffected by the antibiotics, As the bladder lining naturally sheds over the weeks/months, so the bacteria is released causing another infection and the cycle begins again. This is why the long term antibiotics can work.

Worth bearing in mind if this UTI keeps recurring.

Look up the low acid diet. It is literally the only thing that I've heard works for a lot of women.

@rentersleaf how often do you have sex?

@notsureicandoitagain no, because frankly getting a GP appointment is a bloody PITA. I’ve had to go private for antibiotics today over the phone because I cant get one. The last one I had cultured came back borderline but I had symptoms and a positive dipstick. Responded to macrobid within 24h.

That’s really interesting, thank you for sharing that. I had no idea that’s what it meant. If it only comes up after sex though, would that be the case? I’ve done an e consult to my GP to discuss.

I recently started taking one trimethoprim when I have sex. I put it off for ages because I didn’t want to be taking regular antibiotics. I get frequent UTIs and it’s horrendously painful. It’s ruined plenty of days out and holidays and after the last infection I just decided that regular antibiotics were the preferred option. All the advice about washing, drinking lots of water, going to the loo before and after sex etc. didn’t prevent them for me. It’s given me piece of mind

@Maplelady how often do you have sex? I feel like sometimes I’d basically be on them every single day!

also if you have sex more than once a day, do you only take the one antibiotic?