Video:What Are Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection?
with Dr. Robert LahitaA urinary tract infection can be spotted by painful, burning urination, among other symptoms. Learn about the various symptoms of a UTI in this health video from About.com.See Transcript
Transcript:What Are Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection?
I'm Dr. Bob Lahita, the Chairman of Medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. This segment is called: the Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection.
Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection
People often get urinary tract infections. We have something called "honeymoon cystitis", and because the urethra of a female is so short compared to a male's urethra which can be about 9 inches long - since the urethra goes from the bladder to the tip of the penis. But in a female the bladder to the part where the urethral meatus comes into the vagina is extremely short and so honeymoon cystitis is simply chronic irritation of the urethra with infection.
And what are the symptoms? Well the symptoms of urethritis are pain on urination. The pain on urination can be accompanied by pus depending on what the organism is. In the case of cystitis the main symptom is: you never feel like you've finished urinating - and therefore if you have this feeling you should seek medical care. Irritation of the bladder wall, or of something that is at the base of the bladder called the trigone can result in excruciating burning and pain on urination and is a symptom of what is called cystitis which is an infection of the bladder itself.
Treating a Urinary Tract Infection
The cystitis can lead to urethritis and the urethritis is easily diagnosed by your physician, who may take a urine sample for culture or actually swab the tip of the penis or the meatus of the vagina with a cotton swab and culture it. More significant infections involve the kidney. The kidney is attached to the bladder via the urethers. The nefrons of the the kidney can result in an infection called pielonephritis . Which means infected (pielo) kidney (nephritis). And pielonephritis can result in severe back pain either on both sides or on one side, high fever, and eventually burning on urination. These are easily treated with antibiotics taken orally.
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