(Getty Images)
Let’s start with the fun news: More than 50 percent of women will have at least one urinary tract infection (an infection caused by fungi, viruses, and bacteria in the urinary tract) during their lives. And with each UTI, the risk that you will continue having recurrent infections increases. Some women have three or more UTIs a year. Joy!
Commonly, these delightful infections are treated with a seven- to 10-day course of antibiotics, but there’s a widely held belief among holistic health experts that you can mitigate mild symptoms naturally and avoid a trip to the doctor altogether?or at least feel some relief while you’re in a Uber to the emergency room.
Before you start experimenting with natural home remedies, you first need to work out whether what you have is actually a UTI. This kind of infection can be confirmed only by urine tests at a doctor’s office, but there are some common symptoms that give you a pretty good indication that you’re suffering from a UTI. Manhattan-based urologist Dr. Philippa Cheetham, MBChB, MRCS, MD, FRCS, explained what you should look for: “Symptoms include burning or stinging pain on urinating, frequency of urination, urgency to urinate, lower abdominal pressure or pain, feeling of incomplete bladder emptying, getting up at night to urinate.” And while there are a bunch of natural remedies you can try at home, they’re obviously not suitable for everyone: “...