Bladder infections are the most common type of urinary tract infection (UTI), but any and all parts of your urinary tract can quickly become infected—the urethra, bladder, ureters, and kidneys. Your age, habits, or health conditions can make a UTI more likely and frequent.
Our infection-specific UTI testing panel helps diagnose UTI’s and includes antibiotic resistant markers, which are extremely useful to treat the infection(s).
Although urinary tract infections don’t always cause signs and symptoms, when they do they may include:
- Strong and often persistent urge to urinate
- Burning sensation when urinating
- Passing small amounts of urine frequently
- Urine that appears to be cloudy
- Urine that appears red, brown or bright pink — a possible sign of blood in the urine
- Pungent urine
- Pelvic pain, typically in women — especially in the center of the pelvis and around the area of the pubic bone
UTIs can sometimes be overlooked or simply mistaken for other conditions in older adults. Treatments for bladder infections and other UTIs may include antibiotics and drinking lots of liquids, which can help flush bacteria from your urinary tract. Changes in habits, hygiene, or birth control method may help prevent further infections from happening.
The vast majority of urinary tract infections (UTIs) are caused by the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), usually found in the digestive system. Chlamydia and mycoplasma bacteria can infect the urethra but not the bladder.
UTIs are given different names depending on where they occur. For example:
- A bladder infection is called cystits
- A urethra infection is called urethritis.
- A kidney infection is called pyelonephritis.
The ureters are very rarely the site of infection.
