checked out memories and stuff.

[haightedscorpio.livejournal.com]

Hello hello - long time watcher never a poster.

I have a really bad UTI right now, but I'm not going to the doctor for it -- However my question is every time I pee it still smells like latex. I havent had sex for about 2 weeks now.. I'm still wondering why this is.. and what I can do to fix it. The smell of course not the infection since I found some stuff on that from you guys.

Is this normal after sex? Is it normal to have it this -late-?

Comments

[aechei.livejournal.com]

ummmmm.....
if you have a uti you need to go to the doctor. no ifs, ands, or buts. you need antibiotics, unless you want a kidney infection. which you dont.
probably the smell has to do with the infection-uti's can make your pee smell funny.
yes, a latex smell isnt unusual if you used a condom, but it should be gone in a couple days at most unless you dont shower regularly.

[haightedscorpio.livejournal.com]

yeah your talking to a poor chick here - antibiotics are expensive.

LoL yes, I shower regularly.

Im confused though, if I had sex with a condom why does my pee smell like latex.. its not like he was in the wrong hole or anything.

[aechei.livejournal.com]

well, ikt gets a lot more expensive when you have to go to the hospital for a kidney infection.

at this point, condoms are not making your pee smell. it is something else. condoms can give your whole crotch a latex-y smell for a while--its not your pee, you just notice it when you pee.

i got antibiotics at family planning (like PP) for 20$ us. it is worth the 20 bucks.

[punk-is-so-dead.livejournal.com]

I agree with you! To the OP -- it's not like a cold and will just go away on it's on. Infections get worse if they're not treated. There are preventative things you can do in the future, but in the meantime, you HAVE a UTI and you NEED to see a doctor. Antibiotics are not nearly as expensive as a trip to the ER

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

i can understand being poor. however, is saving $20 or $40 worth risking a much much more serious kidney infection that could put you in the hospital? go to a doc, something like planned parenthood or an urgent care center, and explain that you don't have insurance and are poor. if you're lucky, they may be able to give you free antibiotic samples, or at least give you a prescription for some of the less expensive ones.

[haightedscorpio.livejournal.com]

I wanna thank you for your help.. so when I call PP... what do I say?? Do I say that I need antibiotics? Or do I say that I may have a Bladder infection -- can you help me.

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

tell them you think you have a bladder infection and may need antibiotics. at your appointment, they'll be able to test if you have an infection and figure out which antibiotic to give you. also mention that you're poor and have no insurance, and ask if they have a sliding pay scale. good luck!

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

Generic antibiotics, really, aren't that expensive. I got a weeks worth of the generic for Keflex for less than 10$

Hospital bills are way more expensive than going to the urgent care clinic to get checked out.

[haightedscorpio.livejournal.com]

does it matter what type they are? Whats keflex - is i ta type of bladder infection?

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

Yah, it matters what type of antibiotic you have. They prescribe different ones for different infections. I just used Keflex as an example (it's the antibiotic name). I had an infected abcess that got really bad really fast and I ended up having to go to the doctor everyday for two weeks, not fun. I don't have insurance either, and if I'd gone in sooner, it probably wouldn't have been nearly so bad. Since I'm low income though, they worked with me. It's worth going so it doesn't get worse.

[haightedscorpio.livejournal.com]

So where would I find a list of anti biotics for specific things.. I saw they had one for amoxicillian but I remember taking those for sore throats.

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

Um... the doctor will know what to prescribe you, just ask for a generic version of whatever it is.

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

If you're absolutely opposed to going to the doctor, I would suggest the cranberry pills that I suggested to another member yesterday. AZO concentrated cranberry pills...you can get them at the drugstore or at Wal Mart, grocery store, etc. They are super super concentrated and you would need to drink gallons of cranberry juice to get the effects of the pills. As aechei said, you should go to the doctor, but if you absolutely will not go to the doc, try these pills...not saying they work for everyone, but they certainly worked wonders to clear up my last UTI.

[sweet-tea79.livejournal.com]

sidenote: AZO pills, while they are a gift from the gods when you have a UTI, do not actually help to get rid of the infection. They just numb up your urinary tract so that you don't feel like you're peeing fire. It's like giving someone morphine when they break their arm; it doensn't do anything to reset the bone or make the arm heal, but it sure does make you feel better. Just a little clarification b/c AZO pills shouldn't be used longer than the recommended time.

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

As I had stated yesterday, when this same subject was brought up in someone else's post, yes - there are different types of AZO pills...one type helps with the symptoms of UTI's, lessening the pain and "urge to go". Another type, the Cranberry Pills, help to fight/ward off the infection, with the acid in cranberries (the same reason why people drink cranbery juice to prevent/help a UTI). Again, there is more than one type of AZO pills...they make a variety of pills for a variety of needs. I even saw an ad for one type of AZO pill just today on TV, it's supposed to be a "natural way to increase your libido" or something like that...AZO Intimacy, it's called. There are a few different types.

[smallstar.livejournal.com]

There is evidence that cranberry juice/pills can help PREVENT a UTI (it's actually not the acid, but a specific protein in the cranberries that helps block bacteria from sticking to the lining of your bladder). There is absolutely NO evidence that cranberry juice/pills can get rid of a UTI once you have one. About 50% of simple UTI's (if I recall correctly) will get better on their own without treatment. Most people who claim to have "cured" their UTI with cranberry products or some herbal remedy or whatever are just taking advantage of that fact and getting lucky. The products themselves aren't actually doing anything. The only real treatment for a UTI is antibiotics.

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

Maybe so, but the girl clearly stated that going to a doctor and getting antibiotics is not an option for her. Therefore, you will notice in my first comment to her I said "If you're absolutely opposed to going to the doctor, I would suggest the cranberry pills that I suggested to another member yesterday." Note the "absolutely opposed to going to the doctor" part.

Research or no research, I was simply stating that the cranberry pills have worked for me. The first time I had a UTI, I had to wait a few days before getting in to see the doctor. My UTI did not clear up all by itself in these few days and in fact did not go away until I got meds from the doc. I do not believe they "will get better on their own without treatment" as you put it. As other people have stated, and as I have heard many times, if untreated, the UTI could get worse, causing a kidney infection. However, the second time I got a UTI all I used was the cranberry pills, and my infection was gone in two days. That is why I believe it was the cranberry pills that did the trick for me...no pills, UTI for a week. Pills, UTI for two days. Hmmm....nope, really don't think I was "just taking advantage of that fact and getting lucky."

[smallstar.livejournal.com]

The plural of anecdote is not data. Here are some data for you:

From the Cochrane Review of cranberry juice as UTI prevention (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15106157):
"There is some evidence from two good quality RCTs that cranberry juice may decrease the number of symptomatic UTIs over a 12 month period in women."

From the Cochrane Review of cranberry juice as UTI treatment (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10796775):
"After a thorough search, no randomised trials which assessed the effectiveness of cranberry juice for the treatment of urinary tract infections were found. Therefore, at the present time, there is no good quality evidence to suggest that it is effective for the treatment of urinary tract infections."

I actually didn't realise that the negative review on UTI treatment was on the basis of there being absolutely NO decent placebo-controlled studies done on the subject. So yeah, I guess it's possible that cranberry really does work for treating UTI's and we just don't know because we haven't studied it properly yet. Then again, given how weak the evidence is for just preventing UTI's, somehow I don't really expect that cranberry juice is going to turn out to be the magical cure-all for established infections. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

On the subject of UTI response to placebo (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12236276):
"After seven days the bacteriological cure rate was 17/23 in the intervention group and 9/22 in the placebo group"

Of the women who were proven to have bacteria in their urine at the beginning of the study, 22 ended up taking a placebo rather than the antibiotic treatment. Seven days later, 9 of those women had no bacteria in their urine. That's a placebo response rate of 41%.

Based on that study, one can conclude that a simple UTI will just get better on its own about 40% of the time. The other 60% of the time, it won't get better and will require actual treatment. Obviously, if a person requires treatment and doesn't get it, the infection could worsen and involve the kidneys. That is why doctors recommend that all UTI's be treated, properly, with antibiotics. Just because you had a UTI once that didn't get better on its own, and then had another UTI that got better after you took some cranberry pills DOESN'T PROVE ANYTHING. It's just anecdotal evidence.

Obviously if the OP absolutely doesn't want to go to a doctor, then she's just going to have to take her chances. If she wants to take some cranberry pills while she waits, that's fine, but there's absolutely no REAL evidence to suggest that that's going to be any more effective than taking a sugar pill, or just sitting with her fingers crossed hoping for the best. Personally, I'd recommend that she see a doctor. A 5-day prescription for Macrobid really isn't that expensive, and is a hell of a lot better than ending up in hospital with a kidney infection.

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

I'm not discounting the data, nor do I really need it. I know what worked for me, and so I will continue to use what worked for me in the future, if need be. I don't need any written evidence...my evidence is my body and it's lack of a UTI.

The OP did not want to go to the doctor, and that is why I was suggesting an alternative method that worked for me. That is all.

Also, my doctor has also recommended it to me, so it can't be all that bad or false.

[feckalyn.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to point out that I believe you're missing smallstar's point here.

It's great that you feel that you were able to cure your UTI with cranberry. More power to ya! :)

All we ask is that if you go around telling people with UTIs that they can do the same that you also mention it was only your personal experience and that the data show that cranberry isn't a treatment, but preventative.

That way perhaps we can help people avoid ending up with kidney infections because they got the idea that they could just drink some cranberry juice and they'd be fine.

Make sense? :)

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

Well she's not planning to go to the doctor anyway, so I hardly think my advice is going to be the cause of her possible kidney infection.

Safe Space Maintainer

[feckalyn.livejournal.com]

And now I suspect you're not understanding my point.

I'll be more direct:

Please do not tell people that cranberry suppliments can cure a UTI, period. There is not concrete data to back up that claim, in fact, the research specifically proves that claim untrue.

As a safe space maintainer for this community I take the spread of misinformation very seriously.

I'm not going to argue this any further.

Thanks,
Sasha

Re: Safe Space Maintainer

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

I was trying to help the girl. She stated that she is not going to the doctor. Using cranberry juice/pills is better than nothing.

Re: Safe Space Maintainer

[feckalyn.livejournal.com]

No, it's not better than nothing because it does *not treat* a UTI, and an untreated UTI can lead to a kidney infection.

If you'd like to discuss this further you may email me (feckalyn at vaginapagina dot com), I will not discuss it further here.

Thanks,
Sasha

(frozen) Re: Safe Space Maintainer

[brn-eyd-grl.livejournal.com]

No, it's not better than nothing because it does *not treat* a UTI

And doing nothing does?

(frozen) Re: Safe Space Maintainer

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

You obviously are not satisfied with the conclusion of this discussion. Therefore, take it to email. Do not comment here futher.

Jen, SSM
for the vp on lj team

[sweet-tea79.livejournal.com]

Your pee doesn't smell from the condom; it smells b/c you have a UTI. You need to go to the doctor for antibiotics. Like aechei said, an untreated UTI can turn into a kidney infection, which means hospitalization and IV antibiotics. I understand that money is tight, but go to PP or go to your local health department for antibiotics. $20 now for 5-10 days of pills is much, MUCH cheaper than an IV drip and a hospital bed.

I'm not a fan of handing out antibiotics like candy; however, a UTI needs to be treated. Go to PP, your local clinic, or if you have a regular doctor they might be able to help you out with samples. Get yourself treated.

[hollywoodfreak.livejournal.com]

I don't have any research to back this up, but in my experience, and the experiences of my female relatives, "really bad" UTIs don't clear themselves up. If you're experiencing extreme pain during urination, discomfort between urinations, or if you've had symptoms for more than 2-3 days, you need to go to a doctor. Your userinfo says you live in Reno, so there should be a Planned Parenthood or local reduced-price clinic where you can get low-cost antibiotics. If you don't treat it now, you stand a very good chance of having to pay hundreds in hospital bills because it backed up to your kidneys.