Posted 23 hours ago,
Reading 3 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
A new study has linked gut microbiota to recurrent UTIs in women. The cause of the infections would be linked to the taking of antibiotics, which would make the microbiota dysfunctional.
According to researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine of St. Louis, the Broad Institute of MIT and of Harvard (United States), recurrent urinary tract infections could be linked to an imbalance of the intestinal microbiota, which would be caused by taking antibiotics. The results were published in the journal Nature microbiology on May 2.
Urinary tract infections: what is the cause?
Most UTIs are caused by E.Coli bacteria that come from the intestines and enter the urinary tract. They are characterized by frequent and painful urination (urination). Taking antibiotics usually makes the symptoms go away. But the relief is often fleeting since a quarter of women develop a second urinary tract infection within the next six months.
The researchers therefore wanted to understand why some women contracted recurrent urinary tract infections and others did not. To do this, they followed for a year 15 women with recurrent urinary tract infections and 16 women without. All participants provided urine and blood samples at the start of the study, and stool samples each month.
During the study, 24 UTIs were reported, all in patients with a history of infection. When the participants were diagnosed with a UTI, the team took additional urine, blood and stool samples.
Dysfunctional microbiota and taking antibiotics
The difference between women who had repeated UTIs and those who didn’t, surprisingly, didn’t come down to the presence of E.Coli bacteria. Both groups of women studied were carriers.
But the distinction was in the composition of their gut microbiota. Patients with recurrent infections actually had much lower numbers of healthy gut microbial species. Their immune response to the bacterial invasion of the bladder, potentially governed by the intestinal microbiota, would thus be much less effective, and would make infections more frequent.
According to the researchers, a dysfunctional microbiome could be linked to taking antibiotics: “Women who suffer from recurrent UTIs could be caught in a vicious circle in which antibiotics given to eradicate one infection predispose them to develop another”.
Taking antibiotics would thus eliminate pathogenic bacteria from the bladder, in particular the E.Coli bacterium, but not those from the intestines. Surviving bacteria in the intestine could therefore multiply and spread again into the bladder, causing repeated urinary tract infections.
In parallel, the repeated intake of antibiotics would deteriorate the useful bacteria which normally live in the intestines and which make up the intestinal microbiota.
Consult a GP online
What to do to prevent urinary tract infections?
Recurrent urinary tract infections are not necessarily the result of an unhealthy lifestyle. According to the study researchers, the problem lies in the disease itself, stemming in particular from the correlation between intestine, bladder and levels of inflammation.
For Dr. Gérald Kierzek, certain measures must nevertheless be followed to avoid urinary tract infections:
- Stay well hydrated;
- Do not hold back when you have to pee, because “stagnation of urine favors the development of germs” ;
- Systematically urinate after sexual intercourse;
- Wipe back and forth after bowel movement.
When urination is frequent and painful, “it is important not to self-medicate with antibiotics. Just because an antibiotic worked for someone else doesn’t mean you should test it on yourself. It is necessary that there is a test done with a urine dipstick”he explains.
“Finally, when there are repeated urinary tract infections, an ECBU (Cytobacteriological examination of urine) must be carried out”, in the hospital or doctor’s office.