Winter is the time to spend curled up on the couch to watch movies by a fire, not to deal with UTI pain. If you’re one of the many women who have experienced a urinary tract infection, you may be familiar with the symptoms of a UTI that can include cloudy urine, pain in the lower abdomen, back pain and burning in the urethra.1 But what about that frustrating feeling of urinary urgency? The strong need to urinate is a common UTI symptom, so let’s learn about what is causing it, and what you can do to help relieve the symptom.
A SYMPTOM OF A UTI: URINARY URGENCY
One of the most common UTI symptoms, is feeling a strong urge to urinate, even just after using the bathroom. On any normal day, your bladder tells your brain to pee about six to seven times a day.2 However, urinary tract infections will make you feel like you need to spend the rest of the day in the bathroom. The bladder and the brain have a very close relationship: when your bladder is half full, the stretch receptors in the walls of your bladder activate and send signals along the pelvic nerves to the spinal cord.3 The brain then sends a signal back to the detrusor muscle in the bladder to make it contract, and this contraction increases the pressure in the bladder—resulting in the urge to pass urine!3 When you have the burn and other symptoms of a urinary tract infection, the pain and pressure in your bladder continuously tells your brain that it needs to go, even if you’re bladder is empty.
HELP UTI SYMPTOMS
Whether you’ve had UTI symptoms before or not, it’s important to be prepared with a few handy tips so that you can get the proper treatment and the relief you’re looking for.
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See the Doctor
When you think you have a UTI, the first thing you need to do is prioritize a doctor’s or medical professional visit.4 He or she will confirm your UTI and determine if you need a prescription for antibiotics. You must follow the instructions to have the greatest chance of getting rid of your urinary tract infection. -
Drink water
One of the recommendations for UTIs includes drinking plenty of water because it helps flush the bacteria causing your UTI symptoms out of the urinary tract.5 Not sure how much to drink? Aim for half of your body weight in ounces of water, up to 80 ounces a day.5 For example, if you weigh 140 pounds, you should drink 70 ounces of water. Drinking more water will increase your strong need to urinate, but the good thing is that your pee stream will help push the bacteria from your urinary tract. Grab your water bottles, ladies! -
Take an over-the-counter pain reliever for UTI’s
Don’t suffer through urinary tract symptoms without phenazopyridine hydrochloride, the only ingredient that targets the source of UTI pain . Phenazopyridine hydrochloride is the active ingredient in AZO Urinary Pain Relief® Maximum Strength and is available over-the-counter to provide fast effective relief for pain, burning and irritation6 and is ideal to take on your way to the doctor’s office or if you need to wait for an appointment. It also controls the strong urge to urinate—bingo!
So if you find yourself with the strong urge to urinate, you may be noticing a UTI symptom. Thankfully, you now know what to do!
