How Can Women Prevent Urinary Tract Infections?
• Women should urinate directly after sexual intercourse. • Carefully wipe from front to back after urinating or having a bowel movement. • Drink lots of water (at least eight glasses a day). • Drink cranberry juice or any citrus juice. • Use a form of contraception other than a diaphragm and/or spermicidal jelly. • Use vaginal estrogen cream in women past menopause. • Young girls should avoid bubble baths, which does not cause infections but can irritate the urinary tract. Women who consistently develop a urinary tract infection after sexual intercourse may be advised to take a single dose of antibiotic after sex. Women who have very frequent urinary tract infections may benefit from taking a dose of antibiotic once a day, or three times weekly (called a prophylactic dose). Pregnant women who have required treatment for two bladder infections during pregnancy should be treated with prophylactic antibiotics until two weeks after delivery.
