Can I have sex if I have a urinary tract infection?

In today's social life, more and more hospitals and clinics have appeared in the streets and alleys, and bacteria of all sizes are omnipresent. Now people's living standards have improved. Although some people do pay attention to health preservation, there are still some people who do not pay attention to maintaining their body hygiene and only care about superficial appearance, which gradually causes infection with certain diseases. So is it possible to have sex if you have a urinary tract infection?

If you have a urinary tract infection, you should not have sex, as it will only make the condition worse.

Urinary tract infection refers to an inflammation of the urinary tract caused by pathogens growing and multiplying in the urinary tract of the body, invading the urinary tract mucosa or tissue. Bacteria are the most common pathogens, and fungi, viruses, parasites, etc. can also cause infection. Depending on the site of infection, urinary tract infection is divided into upper urinary tract infection and lower urinary tract infection.

Upper urinary tract infection mainly refers to pyelonephritis, which is an infectious inflammation of the renal parenchyma and renal pelvis, caused by bacterial invasion of the kidneys. Pyelonephritis is clinically divided into acute pyelonephritis and chronic pyelonephritis. In most cases of acute pyelonephritis, pathogenic bacteria reach the kidneys through the bladder and ureters, causing inflammation, which is mainly manifested by acute interstitial inflammation and varying degrees of necrosis of renal tubular epithelial cells.

Complicated urinary tract infection means:

① Organic or functional abnormalities in the urinary tract, causing urinary tract obstruction and poor urine flow;

② There are foreign bodies in the urinary tract, such as stones, indwelling urinary catheters, etc.;

③ There is obstruction in the kidney, such as urinary tract infection occurring on the basis of chronic renal parenchymal disease, most of which is pyelonephritis, which can cause renal tissue damage. Long-term repeated infection or incomplete treatment may progress to chronic renal failure.

It is generally believed that there are four ways of urinary tract infection: ascending infection, blood infection, lymphatic infection and direct infection. (1) Ascending infection: Most urinary sensations are caused by ascending infection. Under normal circumstances, there are bacteria parasitic in the urethral opening and its surroundings, but they generally do not cause infection. When the body's resistance is reduced or the urethral mucosa is slightly damaged, or when the bacteria are highly virulent and have a strong ability to adhere to the urethral mucosa and ascend, they can easily invade the bladder and kidneys and cause infection. Because the female urethra is close to the anus and the female urethra is much shorter and wider than the male urethra, the urethra of baby girls is often contaminated by feces, making it more susceptible to disease.

(2) Hematogenous infection: Bacteria invade the bloodstream from infection sites in the body (such as tonsillitis, sinusitis, dental caries or skin infection) and reach the kidneys, first causing multiple small abscesses in the renal cortex, and then spreading downward along the renal tubules to the renal papillae, calyces and renal pelvic mucosa. However, inflammation can also start from the papillary collecting ducts with slight damage to the renal papilla (such as crystal damage in the urine) and then spread upward and downward. Blood-borne infection is relatively rare, less than 10%. Hematogenous infection is more common in neonates or hematogenous renal infection in patients with Staphylococcus aureus sepsis.

(3) Lymphatic infection: The lymphatic vessels of the lower abdomen and pelvic organs have many communicating branches with the lymphatic vessels around the kidneys. There are also lymphatic vessels connecting the ascending colon and the right kidney. Bacteria can also infect the kidneys through the lymphatic vessels during pelvic organ inflammation, appendicitis, and colitis.

(4) Direct infection: When there is trauma or infection in organs adjacent to the kidney, bacteria can directly invade the kidney and cause infection. However, this situation is very rare clinically.

There are many factors that cause urinary tract infection. The causes related to urinary tract infection can be summarized as follows:

Upper urinary tract infections are very common in women, mainly because women have shorter urethras and bacteria can move upward more easily than men. In addition, E. coli exists in the female urethra, and sexual intercourse is an important cause of infection.

It is reported that generally 4.5% of pregnant women have bacteriuria, and the incidence rate is higher than that of non-pregnant women of the same age. The incidence rate is even higher in older pregnant women and multiparous pregnant women. Therefore, pregnancy is an important cause of urinary incontinence.

Urinary tract obstruction is an important cause of urinary tract infection. According to statistics, the incidence of urinary sensation in people with urinary tract obstruction is 12 times higher than that in people without obstruction. Due to stones, tumors, urethral stenosis, prostatic hypertrophy, female bladder neck obstruction, phimosis, neurogenic bladder, bladder diverticulum, renal ptosis and other reasons, urine flow is not smooth, bacteria are not easily discharged from the bladder and multiply in large numbers, making infection prone to occur.

Urinary tract malformations or functional defects, such as renal dysplasia, polycystic kidney disease, medullary cystic disease, iron-shoe kidney, and other renal, renal pelvis, ureteral malformations or vesicoureteral reflux, are prone to infection.

Diabetes is more likely to cause urinary tract infection because the glucose in the urine provides nutrition for bacteria. Once these patients have urinary incontinence, they are prone to pyelonephritis and even acute renal papillary necrosis. Therefore, urinary tract instruments should be avoided in diabetic patients.

Other factors: systemic diseases, such as severe liver disease, chronic kidney disease, advanced tumors and long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs, etc., which reduce the body's resistance and make it easy to have urinary incontinence.

Gynecological inflammation, balanitis and prostatitis are the most common causes of urinary incontinence.

People with reduced renal blood flow due to hypertension and vascular disease are more susceptible to infection.

Kidney damage caused by hypokalemia, hypercalcemia and abuse of analgesics can also easily lead to urinary incontinence.

Catheterization and urinary tract instrument examinations can damage the urethral mucosa and may also bring bacteria from the urethral opening directly into the bladder. According to statistics, even under strict disinfection, the chance of urinary tract infection caused by a single catheterization is about 2%. If the catheter is left in place for more than 4 days, the chance can be as high as 90%. After a catheter is left in place for 10 consecutive days, the urinary tract will inevitably be infected.

People who abuse phenacetin may develop renal papillary necrosis, and the diseased renal tissue is more susceptible to infection, possibly due to impaired defense function.

After reading the above introduction about whether you can have sex when you have a urinary tract infection, I think everyone should have understood it. People with urinary tract infection cannot have sexual intercourse, as it will aggravate the infection and increase the pain of the patient. We should take good care of our bodies, pay attention to hygiene, change clothes frequently, and reduce and avoid the generation of bacteria.