Urinary Infection

At Collins Urology we aim to restore you urological health and minimise your risk of  future symptoms. However, urinary infections are common, even in healthy women and symptoms can start very suddenly. Prompt treatment of a urinary infection minimises pain and suffering and reduces the risk of more serious acute and chronic complications. 

When urinary symptoms start the ideal treatment pathway is to:

1. Submit a mid-stream urine sample to pathology (it takes 48 hours to get the final result of this test). The sample can be collected at any time of day but needs to be done in a sterile pathology pot (not a household jar even if washed with boiling water)

2. Start an appropriate course of antibiotics for UTI (there is no ideal antibiotic, it depends on the type of bacteria present in each infection, the results of past urine tests and the presence of any drug allergies)

3. Review of the pathology results at 48 hours and adjustment of antibiotic treatment if necessary

4. Complete the prescribed course of antibiotic and submit another mid-stream urine test one week after finishing antibiotics

5. Start a non-antibiotic urinary antiseptic (eg. Cranberry, Hiprex, D-Mannose)

6. Attend for review with our Urologist with a urinary tract ultrasound scan if symptoms persist, if there are recurrent infections (more than three infections a year or one that leads to hospital admission and the need for antibiotics through a drip (IV antibiotics)) or if follow up urine samples (x2) show persisting abnormalities (eg blood or inflammation) that do not disappear after antibiotic treatment