Four dangerous periods when women are susceptible to infection

　　No wonder, this is a trouble that women often encounter. According to statistics, 10% of women develop urinary tract infections every year. One in five women will suffer from it at least once in their lifetime.

　　My good friend Xiaoqiu, when she was 26 years old and in her prime, happily married a good husband. When a group of old friends were extremely envious of her, I received a call from her saying that she was feeling a little unwell. She said she felt burning when urinating and the pain was unbearable. What's even more embarrassing is that I seem to have the urge to urinate at any time. Every time I just finish having a bowel movement, I feel like I'm holding it in, but the urine output is very little. It was so painful for her to run to the bathroom again and again!

　　Judging from her symptoms, I thought she probably had a urinary tract infection. I suggested she come right away Hospital Test it. Sure enough, a lot of white blood cells were found in the urine, indicating inflammation of the urinary system.

　　The clinic often encounters patients like Xiaoqiu who come for treatment due to frequent urination, urgency, and painful urination. Most of them are female . According to statistics, the chance of women suffering from urinary tract infection is male 10 times. This is because God did not favor women when He created the human urinary system. The female urethra is shorter than the male urethra, generally only 4 centimeters long. The inner cavity of the urethra is relatively wide, and the outer opening is close to the vagina and anus, which are easily contaminated by bacteria, so it is easily infected. In addition, women’s external genitalia has many folds, and bacteria often colonize near the urethral opening. If the body’s resistance decreases, bacteria will take advantage of it.

　　Women are particularly vulnerable to urinary tract infections during four special periods.

　　menstrual period

　　One of my patients had minor urinary tract infections two or three times a year, and they were very regular, usually three to five days after menstruation. Bacteria can easily breed and multiply in menstrual blood and then contaminate the urethra. In addition, the body's resistance decreases during menstruation, which makes infection more likely. Using tampons during menstruation may disrupt the normal defense mechanism of the vagina. Women who use internal tampons are more likely to get sick than women who only use sanitary napkins!

　　wedding period

　　The urethral opening of a virgin is covered by the labia majora and labia minora, and the urethra is not in direct contact with the outside world, so it is relatively clean. After you start having sex, this natural barrier is destroyed. During the wedding period, sexual life is more frequent, and the sexual organs of men and women are in close contact and friction, which opens the door for bacteria to invade. If you don't pay attention to sexual hygiene, you are more likely to get sick. Uterus Cap, kill sperm Agents can disrupt the bacterial balance in the vagina, reducing protective bacteria and allowing harmful bacteria to take the opportunity to attack. In addition, during the wedding period, you are busy with wedding banquets and honeymoon trips, which makes you emotionally excited and your body easily fatigued, and your body's resistance will decrease. As a result, many brides get sick during their honeymoon, which brings some trouble and embarrassment to their happy and romantic days.

　　Pregnancy

　　I once heard a nurse say that after she was 7 months pregnant, her urinary response seemed to be slow. Sometimes she couldn't feel the need to urinate for three or four hours in a row, and she always had a lot of urine when she went to the toilet. This is because in the last few months of pregnancy, the huge uterus squeezes the bladder and urethra, so urine is easily retained in the bladder, and bacteria can easily grow in stagnant urine, so the chance of infection will greatly increase during pregnancy.

　　menopause

　　Due to the decrease in estrogen, the urethral mucosa undergoes degenerative changes, the immunoglobulin and organic acid content decreases, and local resistance decreases. This is also the peak period of urinary tract infection. According to statistics, after menopause, urinary tract infections increase by 1%-2% every 10 years.

　　I repeatedly told Xiaoqiu that urinary tract infection is easy to relapse. disease , according to statistics, if you get it once, the probability of getting it again within two years is as high as 80%! Therefore, do not take it lightly and strive for thorough treatment.

　　I have a patient who had cystitis for the first time because he only had some symptoms of frequent urination and urgency, so he didn't pay much attention to it. But after half a month, she suddenly developed a high fever and became weak all over. low back pain I can't stand straight up, I feel burning pain when I urinate, my urine is cloudy, and sometimes there is pink hematuria. The family was frightened and rushed to the hospital, where they were diagnosed with "acute pyelonephritis." This was caused by incomplete treatment of "cystitis" half a month ago.

　　Among urinary tract infections, lower urinary tract infections such as urethritis and cystitis are the most common. Generally speaking, it is not a serious disease. It only causes some minor discomforts such as frequent urination, urgency, and painful urination. Once treated, it will get better quickly. So many people don't pay much attention to it. They take the medicine for a few days and then stop taking it when they think everything is fine. In this way, it is easy for a small number of pathogenic bacteria to escape the attack of antibiotics and survive. When the appropriate time comes, they will come back and cause recurrence. Moreover, bacteria will develop drug resistance at this time, making future treatment more difficult.

　　If urethritis and cystitis are not treated promptly and thoroughly, bacteria can spread up the ureters and invade the kidneys, causing "pyelonephritis". The condition is much more severe, with symptoms such as back pain, fever, chills, general malaise, and sometimes nausea and vomiting. It is also more complex to treat. If it turns into "chronic pyelonephritis" and relapses for a long time, the appearance of the kidneys will be uneven, the two kidneys will become different in size, the kidney function will be damaged, and even "uremia" will develop!