Recurring UTIs: The Infection We Keep Secretly Getting

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Have frequent, burning pee? Cramping or the urge to pee even though you just went? If you haven't yet, you probably will eventually—along with an estimated 60% of women and 10% of men. That's the large slice of the population that experiences a urinary tract infections (UTI) at least once. Many people avoid talking about these infections, but about one in four women experience recurring UTIs. No matter what they do, the infections come back, again and again. So today on the show, Regina G. Barber takes producer Rachel Carlson on a tour of the urinary tract. We zoom into what recurring UTIs may have to do with changes on the DNA of our bladder cells and the hidden bacterial houses in our bladder walls.

Read more about the latest research into recurring UTIs in this article from our colleagues at NPR's global health blog, Goats and Soda.

Got questions about the big and small of our universe? Email us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.6	Hey there Shortwaveers, producer Rachel Carlson here, and today I'm playing host
0:09.9	so our scientist and resident Regina Barber can bring me a story.
0:13.3	Hey Gina, hey Rachel, what you got for me today?
0:16.4	So we're talking all about urinary tract infections or UTIs.
0:21.1	They're very common. They happen to about 60% of women and 10% of men in the US.
0:27.1	That's a huge amount of people, but you're definitely right.
0:29.7	I don't feel like I really hear people talk about them, and I don't know much about them,
0:34.1	other than that they're not fun at all.
0:36.7	Yeah, I didn't really know too much about them either before I started working on this story.
0:41.4	So UTIs are when bacteria get into part of your urinary tract and create an infection.
0:46.6	We'll get into more details later. Details that Kelly Holden is very familiar with.
0:51.8	So Kelly gets chronic or recurring UTIs.
0:55.0	That's when somebody has at least two UTIs every six months or three in a year.
0:59.6	And it's pretty common about one in four women experience this.
1:03.4	She's been getting UTIs since she was a six-month-old baby.
1:07.0	And over the years?
1:08.1	Years.
1:08.9	Yeah, years. She's gotten very familiar with a particular sensation.
1:13.5	It was wanting to pee all the time.
1:16.8	And I guess for lack of a better term burning when you pee?
1:21.2	Yeah, it really hurts.
	...

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