A urinary tract infection is a torment: a feeling of desperate urgency to urinate and then searing pain during the act. Most UTIs are caused by organisms that flourish without problems in the digestive tract. But when they move into the urinary tract, these bacteria, like E. coli, can wreak havoc. Experts believe that E. coli moves into the urinary tract through improper wiping (back to front) or sexual intercourse. What can you do to prevent UTIs?
How to Prevent UTIs After Intercourse:
Q. You had a question recently about urinary tract infections. Twenty years ago I had chronic UTIs that occurred after sexual encounters with my husband. They were so bad my husband and I were tested for Chlamydia. We were negative.
I finally figured out what was causing the UTIs. I realized that the clothes dryer sheets left a perfumed residual film on my underwear that irritated my urethra during sex. That led to the UTI.
I started washing my underwear with perfume-free products and without softeners. I have not had another UTI since. It was an amazing, cost-free solution to this annoying health problem.
Watch Out for Perfume:
A. Perfume can be irritating. Although we could find nothing in the medical literature about dryer sheets and UTIs, your solution to prevent UTIs seems simple and reasonable. Many people like to use fragrance-free laundry products to avoid skin irritation and eruptions.
Penn State University Health Services advise students to avoid urinary irritants such as spermicidal condoms, dryer sheets and artificial sweeteners. Perhaps someone else will let us know if your approach works for them.
Other approaches that can also help prevent UTIs include drinking cranberry juice (PLOS One, April 4, 2014), consuming cranberry powder (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, August, 2015) or using a D-mannose supplement, preferably in conjunction with cranberry extract and probiotics (Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, Nov-Dec., 2014, Supplement 1). A recent study demonstrated that cranberry extract inhibits E. faecalis, another bacteria that contributes to urinary tract infections (International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, online July 26, 2016).
