Can UTI symptoms linger after antibiotics? persistent UTI symptoms after treatment? UTI still hurts after antibiotics? UTI comes back right after antibiotics? UTI not responding to antibiotics? and what happens if antibiotics don’t work for UTI.
These are questions and concerns asked by many people suffering from UTI.
stay with me in this article as I’m going to address all these questions and tell you how to deal with these kinds of situations or what to do about them if you are in one of them and more.
Well to answer the first question can UTI symptoms linger after antibiotics? I say yes UTI symptoms can linger after antibiotic(s) but that is only if the antibiotic(s) used on it are not killing or fully eliminating the bacteria from the urinary tract.
Sometimes the antibiotic(s) used to kill the UTI bacteria is not working at all and it’s killing a very small number of the bacteria causing your UTI so you will still be having UTI symptoms during and after the use of this particular antibiotic.
An example of that is using an antibiotic like amoxicillin, cephalexin, or azithromycin on UTI, they will not work for most cases and the UTI symptoms will linger after treatment or persist during and after the treatment.
Many times (I think this is the most common) the doctor will give an antibiotic(s) that is somewhat working but will not fully eliminate the bacteria and this could happen for various reasons.
So the bacteria will hide from the antibiotic for the time being which is the duration of the course and after it’s gone the bacteria will replicate once again and then the UTI and its symptoms will appear once again or get worse if they didn’t go in the first place.
Sometimes there could be nothing wrong with the antibiotic(s) and treatment that you have taken and they have fully eliminated the infection from your urinary tract, but you could be having what it’s called cystitis.
Cystitis is a disease that can produce the same UTI symptoms but there no bacterial cause to these symptoms, what’s causing your symptoms could be stress, some weakness in the bladder muscles or maybe an autoimmune response, doctors debate on what’s the cause.
A UTI can weaken your bladder muscles so that can predispose you to cystitis in the future or maybe right after the UTI.
If your UTI symptoms were not caused by bacteria, then no matter how many antibiotics you throw at them they will not go away, for more information about cystitis and how to deal with it please visit the UTI vs cystitis article.
A good way to know whether it was your UTI that was not fully cured or if it was non-bacterial cystitis is to do a urine test if there were bacteria in your urine and you have UTI symptoms then it’s definitely UTI.
If there were no bacteria but you have the UTI symptoms then it could be cystitis or maybe something else, go to the doctor.
In most cases
If you still have UTI symptoms after you finished your antibiotic(s) course, that is because the antibiotic(s) didn’t fully eliminate the bacteria from your urinary tract, so you are still having a UTI.
how to deal with that situation depends on what is causing your antibiotic(s) to not fully eradicate the infection.
what can cause your antibiotic(s) to not fully eradicate the UTI causing it to linger after the antibiotic(s) is finished.
1) Un underlying condition like kidney stones:
kidney stones, prostate inflammation, or enlargement, and other conditions can be an imposing factor for UTI.
Bacteria will prefer to invade the urinary tract during times of kidney stones or prostate enlargement, usually, the bacteria will be harder to defeat by antibiotics in that case.
Because the underlying condition is always drawing more bacteria to the urinary tract, for example, a kidney stone can scratch the inner surface of your urinary tract drawing the attention of the bacteria to these little wounds and scratches, also the kidney stones can serve as a medium for the bacteria to reside on it or feed on it.
For more information about that please visit the UTI causes article.
A neurogenic bladder is a condition that can prevent the bladder from fully emptying leaving small amounts of urine to stagnate in the bladder, it can happen due to injury to the nerve supplying the bladder or an injury to the spinal cord.
According to HEALTHLINE people with this condition are more prone to having chronic or recurrent UTIs.
the best way to deal with this situation is to treat the underlying condition first, of course, you will need some antibiotics at that period of time so the infection won’t spread but you won’t get fully rid of the UTI unless you treat your condition or at least control it.
2) Pregnancy
pregnancy is a predisposing factor for UTI, the size of the fetus can change the shape or put pressure on your bladder and other urinary tract parts this can cause urine to get stuck in some areas within your urinary tract.
a stagnated urine means infection which means a UTI.
the immune system is weaker during pregnancy so it will be harder to defeat the UTI if it happened, UTI persisting or lingering after the antibiotics course is an expected scenario.
go to your doctor they should prescribe for you the most effective and safest antibiotic available.
for prevention, some doctors will give a low dose of preventative antibiotics during the time of pregnancy like nitrofurantoin (Macrobid), it’s okay but do not take it before you give birth.
for both protection and treatment against UTI drink a lot of water, maybe some little exercise will help, orange juice and pomegranate juice are good.
3) Menopause
pre or post-menopausal women are both more prone to UTIs and also their UTIs will require maybe longer or stronger courses of antibiotics.
women around the age of menopause have lower estrogen levels than usual which makes their uterus and their urogenital tract in general weaker and prone to infections like UTI, this is partly due to alternations in the vaginal and urogenital microflora due to hormonal imbalance.
for them, if they have a UTI and a suitable antibiotic was not prescribed there is a strong chance that the UTI symptoms will linger or persist or maybe disappear for a while and then appear again.
usually, the antibiotic course should be longer than usual or stronger than usual
also, Using vaginal estrogens for post or premenopausal women can be very helpful if you don’t already take oral estrogen.
4) Senior people
the immune system is supposed to help the antibiotics getting rid of the remnants of the bacteria after the antibiotic has done its job, in older people the immune system gets less powerful.
UTI in senior people is tougher to treat many of them have what it’s called asymptomatic bacteriuria which means the presence of bacteria in their urinary tract but without symptoms of UTI.
More often than younger adults this bacteriuria becomes symptomatic and then you will have a full UTI going on, this happens usually when they become somewhat dehydrated or tired or when their immune system becomes weaker in general.
In the case of my grandmother, the doctor had to give her more than one antibiotic to eradicate the infection but the antibiotics didn’t fully eradicate the UTI.
Every once in a while she had to visit the doctor to prescribe for her some antibiotics.
I got sick of this situation so I told her to finish her antibiotic course but also I want you to drink a lot of water every day also drink fresh juices whenever you can, she never had a UTI since then.
so home remedies are very important when it comes to dealing with this kind of UTIs
5) Recurrent or chronic UTI
recurrent or chronic UTI means that UTI has recurred to you after you have successfully treated it when it first occurred to you, if it has recurred for more than one time during a certain period of time (usually 6 months) then it’s a recurrent or chronic UTI.
the causes for recurrent UTIs may vary but the result is that the bacteria is more stubborn, they know how to hide from the antibiotics and start reproducing again once the antibiotics are gone.
Sometimes even if the doctor prescribes the right antibiotics for it, it will come back.
Prescribing low doses of preventative antibiotics over several months period has proven to be effective only temporarily, as bacteria will return next time more resistant especially to the antibiotic that was used on also side effects of antibiotics can be really serious if used for a long time.
I will mention some important home remedies at the end of this article that can really benefit you if you have a recurrent UTI also you can head to my home remedies article.
6) Not prescribing the right antibiotic or misusing antibiotics
This is one of the causes for recurrent UTIs.
giving the wrong antibiotic(s) to any infection including UTI will only cause the infection to be more resistant to antibiotics in general, increasing the chance of it coming back or for it to linger or persist after the treatment has finished.
not just prescribing the wrong antibiotic(s) but also giving it in a lower dose or for a shorter amount of time than it should be, this, in fact, can directly make the bacteria more resistant, please try to understand the dosing from your doctor or pharmacist perfectly.
Giving an antibiotic suitable for normal UTIs to a complicated UTI can only make bacterial resistance worse, also giving an antibiotic suitable for a community-acquired UTI to a person with a hospital-acquired UTI can not fully treat or get rid of the UTI, the examples on this are many.
UTI is not just one type you know.
In any case, these mistakes can participate in UTI and it’s symptoms coming back, lingering, or whatever after treatment.
Try to do a culture and sensitivity test if your doctor hasn’t already told you to do one, this test can be very helpful.
Try to tell your doctor everything you know about your UTI, and also your medical history if you have one so they can make an informed decision, it’s even better if you prepare what you want to say before you see the doctor you can write what you want to say on a piece of paper or your cell phone or anything else.
There is a certain set of numbers of antibiotics that can be used to deal with UTIs if your antibiotic isn’t one of them try to ask your doctor if they are sure about the treatment and also read the information on the antibiotic see if it’s used to treat UTIs, check my antibiotics for UTI article for more information.
7) Sexual intercourse
Although UTI is not considered as a sexually transmitted disease, sexual intercourse can increase the probability of bacteria entering your urethra which is the tube that carries the urine out of the body.
That’s why you should urinate right after you have sex to flush the bacteria out.
Some doctors advised their patients to take a preventative antibiotic after sexual intercourse, this actually is somewhat helpful if used for a short period of time or if used on considerably separate occasions.
8) An anatomical abnormality in the urinary tract
An abnormality in the urinary tract can change the shape of the urinary tract causing the urine to stagnate in some areas within the urinary tract which draws the bacteria in causing a UTI.
The bacteria will be very hard to eradicate unless the anatomical abnormality is removed or corrected.
In many of the above cases, it doesn’t matter sometimes how powerful the antibiotics you throw at them because the UTI will keep coming back, it’s best to deal with the causative problem first then the UTI, MAYOCLINIC also supports that point of view.
What happens if the antibiotic(s) you were given does not work on your UTI?
Well it’s not the end of the world there are many alternatives of antibiotics for each type of UTI, do a culture and sensitivity test to identify the organisms causing your UTI and also to know the specific antibiotic that can eradicate them, some home remedies like drinking water and long walks in this situation are not bad at all.
Also, a weak immune system can cause the UTI to linger after or persist during and after treatment, always try to strengthen your immune system during and after the illness with good rest and eating healthy fruits and vegetables and maybe jogging or long walks in the fresh air and things like that.
Preventative or prophylactic antibiotics
There are opposing points of view about this subject I usually do not agree with doctors giving preventative or prophylactic antibiotics.
Doctors usually give low doses of some antibiotics like nitrofurantoin (Macrobid) or even trimethoprim or maybe cephalexin for a long period of time could be for several months to people who suffer from chronic UTIs.
Also, they may give it to people complaining from their UTI symptoms lingering or coming back after treatment after they ask them to do some additional tests.
Nitrofurantoin is the most common antibiotic to be given in this case, using nitrofurantoin or other antibiotics for a long time can cause their most dangerous side effects to appear, for example, nitrofurantoin can cause some serious damage to the lungs if used for several months.
If you are using preventative antibiotics call your doctor immediately if you notice any unusual side effects.
Aside from the side effects, you will face another problem and that is bacterial resistance, the bacteria will get accustomed to the antibiotic you are using and then you will need to increase the dose or use another antibiotic, and that is not good for you in the long run.
some doctors prescribe preventative antibiotics after sex, I think this can be good if used for a short period of time or if it was used on separate time periods cephalexin (Keflex) is suitable for this purpose, but if you have sex like every day and you take antibiotics after each time then I don’t recommend that.
Of course, some websites agree with this preventative antibiotic(s) thing like Healthline see what they have to say.
It is not always about the hygiene
Genetics play a factor in which people are suffering more from chronic UTIs, don’t beat yourself up if you are taking care of your hygiene then that should be sufficient.
If someone in your family or relatives has or had a chronic UTI that increases the chance of you getting one especially if you are a woman.
But don’t worry it’s not the end of the world you just need to know more about it and discuss it with your doctor, start by reading this article and this one:
Also, check out the website it talks about everything concerning the UTI.
UTI not responding to antibiotics
you should know by the second or the third day from taking an antibiotic(s) on your UTI if that antibiotic(s) was working or not, you should feel your UTI symptoms subsiding by that time period.
if you didn’t notice any improvement in your symptoms you should contact your doctor to change your antibiotic also you must do a culture and sensitivity test and wait for the results to identify the causative agent and also the antibiotics that it’s susceptible to.
while you are waiting, your doctor should give you a broad-spectrum antibiotic like ciprofloxacin or levofloxacin to at least stop the infection from spreading.
note: these antibiotics are powerful, usually they will end the infection even before the culture results come in but if they didn’t you should see what the culture tests say.
home remedies are also helpful in this situation.
Home remedies that can help you defeat recurrent or chronic UTI
1) drink plenty of water
2) wipe from front to back
3) wash your genitals area with soup and plenty of water
4) shower instead of bathtubs
5) do not use spermicides or diaphragms for birth control
6) drink fresh juices like lemon or orange juice
7) take probiotics from supplements or from dairy products
8) small exercises, long walks or jogging can be very helpful but take water with you
9) reduce your daily intake of refined carbohydrates and sugars
10) urinate as soon as you have the urge and right after you have sex
11) make sure you have a healthy bowel
12) try cranberry juice although there is conflicting evidence that it will work, but according to MAYOCLINIC there’s no harm in trying it.
these home remedies will help you prevent UTI from coming back, lingering, or persisting after the use of antibiotics.
For more UTI home remedies and information about them please refer to my home remedies article also don’t forget to check out my website for more information on urinary tract infections.
thank you and goodbye