Does the URGE to Go Leave You BURNING to Know? The Dreadful Urinary Tract Infection!

Hi Shawna,

I feel like I have to pee all the time and when I go nothing happens except for a lot of pain and burning. What’s wrong?

-Anonymous

Hi,

Before I begin to answer your question you need to know that I cannot diagnose your problem via email (meaning I can’t tell you exactly what’s wrong). Only an in-person visit with a clinician can tell you what is going on. If you live in the Bay Area, give us a call at 415.502.8336 to schedule an appointment.

That being said, I can tell you that these symptoms are commonly associated with a urinary tract infection.What is a urinary tract infection?

A urinary tract infection, often referred to as a UTI, is an infection in any part of your urinary system (the part of your body that makes pee) — your kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. Most infections happen in the lower urinary tract system — the bladder and the urethra. The bladder is where urine is stored before leaving the body. The urethra is the tube that connects the bladder to the outside of the body.Check out the diagram below.

Although men can get UTI’s, it isn’t very common. That’s because the urethra, the tube that connects the bladder to the outside of the body, is shorter in women then it is in men making it much easier for bacteria (the germs that cause the infection) to travel from the outside of the body into the inside.

Most UTI symptoms include

• A frequent and strong urge to pee
• Despite the frequent and strong urge to pee, there may actually be little to no pee when trying to go
• A burning sensation when peeing
• Pee that appears cloudy
• Pee that appears red, bright pink or cola-colored — a sign that blood may be present in your pee (not a good thing)
• Strong-smelling pee
• Pelvic pain in women (lower abdominal/stomach area pain)
• Rectal pain in men (pain in the butt, literally)

It’s important to see a clinician right away if you are experiencing any of these symptoms because an untreated UTI can lead to more serious complications, like a kidney infection. Once a clinician diagnoses a UTI, antibiotics are given to clear the infection.

There are a few things you can do to prevent UTI’s and that includes wiping from front to back after using the bathroom. That will help prevent bacteria from the anus (butt-hole) finding their way into the urethra and into the bladder. Also, drinking plenty of water and peeing when you feel the need will flush bacteria from the bladder often and prevent them from multiplying and causing a problem. Lastly, for women, emptying your bladder right before and right after sex can really help reduce your risk of getting a UTI!

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

In happiness & health,

Shawna

Reviewed by Koher Der Simonian, MD

Period pain? Birth control can help!

This week we have an awesome article written by New Gen’s very own clinician, Meredith Warden!!! The article was originally published on Bedsider but it’s a concern we hear at NGHC all the time so we thought it was worth sharing!

Meredith Warden MD, MPH is a Family Planning Clinical Fellow and an Ob/Gyn at the University of California, San Francisco. She lives in San Francisco with her fantastic skateboarding husband and their little mini dachshund named Stretch. She loves being outside doing anything, and reading anywhere, anytime.

 

Hormonal birth control is one of the best ways to manage painful periods.

Having a painful period can mess up your day, or week—or weeks! Every woman’s period is different and the same woman’s periods are often different over time. So how do you know if the pain you have with your period is normal? And what can you do to make your periods  less painful?

For more information on periods, check out some previous blogs!

Aunt Flow’s Monthly Visit

When Aunt Flow DOESN’T Visit

My periods are really painful. Am I normal?

It’s normal for women to have some cramping, bloating, nausea, or diarrhea before their period starts each month. These symptoms can continue for a few days after the period starts, and they can be annoying—but they shouldn’t interfere with going to school or work, or with otherwise living life.

Here’s what’s not normal:

• Moderate to severe cramps or lower belly pain with every period.
• Periods so bad that they interfere with work, school, or life in general

So what’s the problem, exactly?

Periods like this may be dysmenorrhea—a fancy medical term for pain with menstruation. There are several possible causes of severe period pain, some of which have special treatment options.

• The cells from the lining of the uterus may be growing into the muscles of the uterus (adenomyosis) or on other organs in the body (endometriosis).
• The muscle of the uterus may be growing fibroids.
• The uterus may be releasing too much of a substance called prostaglandins, causing its muscles to contract irregularly and leading to big-time pain.

The good news is that you don’t have to put up with this pain! If you’re having abnormally bad periods, talk to your health care provider about what might be causing the pain and how to treat it. There are a few things you can do to make your periods less painful, shorter, or go away altogether.

And what are the solutions?

1. Make your periods less painful. You can buy pain killers like ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin) at the drug store. Start taking them right when you first start feeling symptoms, or if your cycle is really regular, take them just before you expect your period.

2. Make your periods lighter. All types of hormonal birth control are even better at reducing pain than over-the-counter meds. The hormonal IUD, the implant, the shot, the pill, the patch, and the ring will all make periods lighter. This is because these methods of birth control make the lining of the uterus thinner. There’s less tissue in the uterus to shed, so periods are lighter. One special note on the implant and the shot: for some women, these methods cause more days of spotting or bleeding, but periods become lighter and less painful overall.

3. Have fewer periods. The ultimate solution may be to have as few periods as possible. Several methods of birth control can make periods go away for months or even years at a time:

• One of the best ways to treat painful periods is to get the hormonal IUD Mirena. This IUD makes periods lighter and shorter for nearly all women, and many stop getting periods even after one year of use. The chance that you’ll stop getting your period increases the longer you use it. Periods should be light or nonexistent as long as you use a Mirena—up to 5 years. (Of course you don’t have to use it for all 5 years—you can have it removed anytime you want to. Your ability to get pregnant returns right after it’s removed.)

• You can use the pill or the ring continuously. Some brands of the pill are packaged for 3 months of continuous use (e.g. Seasonale or Seasonique). But you don’t need a fancy brand: with a monophasic pill, instead of having a few days of placebo pills when you’d normally get your period, you can just start a new pack of active pills. Here are more details on how to use the pill this way. (However, this may not be an option for those using Family Pact, the little green card we give you at New Gen, to pay for their pills because Family Pact will only give 3 packs of pills every 3 months – ask NGHC for more information about this.) For the ring, instead of having the ring out for a few days when you’d normally get your period, you can just change your ring once a month and skip the week without one. After 3-6 months, you may have break-through bleeding.

• You can try the shot, which causes about half of women to stop getting periods after a year of use.

When hormonal birth control stops your period, it’s because the lining of the uterus gets so thin that there’s nothing to shed. It’s totally safe to skip periods this way, so if you suffer from serious period pain, talk to your provider about what you can do about it.

If you have questions or you are experiencing period pain, come see us at New Gen! We would love to help put an end to your period pain!

Thank you for reading,

Meredith Warden, MD