Women's Health

Tools & Resources

This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive

Font Size

Cystitis: Risk Factors and Treatment

WebMD Feature

"I woke up one morning and every time I had to urinate it became more and more painful," says Amy, a 28-year-old publicist. The pain worsened throughout the day until she noticed she was "peeing pink."

"I thought it was because I was drinking so much cranberry juice," she says. It turned out the discoloration was due to blood in her urine, caused by a bladder infection (cystitis).

Recommended Related to Women

Sex, Exercise, and Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence has an annoying way of showing up at the most inopportune times. You're jogging along, feeling great -- and then you realize your running shorts are damp with urine. Later that night, during a romantic rendezvous with your partner, a trickle of urine appears again, definitely spoiling the moment. Lest you think stress incontinence is a problem only of middle-aged or elderly women, think again. Surprisingly, young women actually have more stress incontinence during...

Read the Sex, Exercise, and Stress Incontinence article > >

Such infections occur when bacteria (usually E. coli, normally found in the colon) enter the bladder.

Cystitis is the most common type of urinary tract infection (UTI), a prevalent disorder that leads to about 9.6 million doctor visits annually, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Women are especially at risk, with one in five developing a UTI during her lifetime.

It's important to seek treatment for a bladder infection because it can lead to a kidney infection -- a more serious and potentially life-threatening disorder -- if not treated.

Women's Risk

While researchers still aren't clear why bladder infections are so common in women, it's thought to be because a woman's urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body) is short, and its opening is close to the anus, making it easy for bacteria to travel from the colon to the bladder.

Certain risk factors increase likelihood of a bladder infection. They include:

sexual activity, which can introduce bacteria into the urinary tract;
use of diaphragms and spermicides, which alter the bacteria in a woman's urethra;
pregnancy, because of changes in anatomy and physiology (a UTI can put the unborn child at risk and a doctor should be consulted immediately);
increased age;
poor hygiene;
diabetes;
medical conditions that suppress the immune system or make emptying the bladder difficult. Once a woman has a UTI, her chances of developing another one increase substantially.

Diagnosis and Treatment

If you have signs of a bladder infection, consult a doctor as soon as possible, before the problem becomes more serious. Other conditions with similar symptoms include urethritis (inflammation of the urethra), interstitial cystitis (a bladder infection with unknown cause), urinary stones and bladder tumors. Your doctor will ask questions about your medical and sexual history and take a urine sample to see whether it contains bacteria and, if so, what type.

Bladder infections are treated with a wide variety of antibiotics. Symptoms usually clear up within a few days in uncomplicated cases, though the medication needs to be taken for the entire prescribed course to cure the infection. Other medications may be given to treat symptoms until the antibiotics kick in.

Dr. James Lewis, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Kaiser Permanente Golden Gate Hospital in San Francisco, recommends a urological evaluation for anyone who gets recurrent infections (more than two or three a year), to see whether another medical problem or a congenital malformation is causing them.

1 | 2

Next Page >