providing antibiotics for unconfirmed UTIs isn’t favorable.
“We used to think the urinary tract was sterile; this was the basis for many decisions about giving antibiotics,” said Finucane, who wasn’t part of the study. “But now we know that the urinary tract has a microbiome and is, in fact, never sterile.”
The lack of sterility in the urinary tract could mean that some symptoms of a UTI can be present in healthy individuals. This idea implies that the UTI diagnosis is overused and patients don’t always need antibiotics.
“In most cases, if a young or middle-aged woman develops painful urination, it’s safe to take pain meds and observe carefully,” Finucane said. “But most of the time it gets better by itself.”
The study can’t prove that the infections were picked up in the hospital. But the
