How To Treat A UTI

When deciding how to treat a UTI, your doctor will take several factors into consideration. The severity of your symptoms, the frequency of infections and your overall health. Urinary Tract Infections occur in both men and women when bacteria enters the bladder. Without treatment, a UTI may lead to a kidney infection and severe complications. Treatment for UTI, however, most often involve a simple inexpensive treatment with oral antibiotics. Here are the facts you need to know about how  treat a UTI from simple to severe infections.

What you'll need to treat a UTI:

• Doctor visit
• Urine test ordered by your doctor
• Antibiotics prescribed by your doctor

Follow these steps to treat a UTI:

1. How to detect a UTI. UTI occurs when bacteria enters the urinary tract or bladder and begins to multiply. In response, your body will produce white blood cells to counter the infection. A urine test will detect the presence of these antibodies and confirm whether you have a urinary tract infection.
2. How to treat simple UTI. If a urine test confirms that you are suffering from UTI, your doctor will place you on a short course of oral antibiotics. The most commonly used medications to treat a UTI are Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprin, Amoxicillin, Nitrofurantoin, Ampicillin, Cipro and Levofloxacin. Your doctor will consider your general health as well as the sensitivity of your stomach to medications when deciding how to treat your UTI. If you have taken UTI medication in the past with efficacious results, your doctor is most likely to repeat the same course of medication again.
3. How to treat frequent UTI. If you suffer from repeated Urinary Tract Infections, your doctor may decide to place you on a different antibiotics for a longer period of time, perhaps with a tapering treatment in which you will take a single dose a day for a prolonged period. If infections still persist, your doctor may treat your UTI with short courses of antibiotics at the first sign of infection. For UTI’s related to sexual activity, your sexual partner may need to be tested for UTI to eliminate the possibility of contagion. In addition, your doctor may recommend taking a single dose of antibiotics directly after intercourse.
4. How to treat severe UTI. Severe UTI occurs when bacteria proliferate in the urinary tract and travel up to one or two of the kidneys. A kidney infection may lead to irreversible organ damage and is typically associated with severe lower back pain. Treatment for UTI that spreads to the kidneys is aggressive from antibiotic shots directly into the kidneys to hospitalization with intravenous antibiotic treatment.

As with all infections, early treatment of UTI will result in faster healing and prevention of complications. If you experience pain while urinating or difficulty urinating, consult your doctor or visit a local clinic and submit a urine test for analysis.