Take our chronic UTI information sheet to your next GP appointment:

Download the Information Sheet.

What happens when a chronic UTI sufferer visits their GP?

GPs rely on the current tests to identify bacterial infections in urine.  These tests are unreliable, but doctors are relying on the test results (as advised in NICE guidelines) to make their diagnosis, rather than patient symptoms.

If urine tests come back negative and short courses of antibiotics don’t appear to work, chronic UTI sufferers may be referred to urologists who often diagnose them with Interstitial Cystitis, Bladder Pain Syndrome, overactive bladder syndrome or urethral syndromes. Too much credence is put on tests which are over 70 years old, proven to be out of date and which miss a significant number of infections.

At the time these test criteria were developed in the 1950s, it was thought urine was sterile which has now been proven not to be case.

The tests were being used to identify kidney infections, not lower urinary tract infections.  Edward Kass, the scientist who developed them, stated that they should not be relied upon for diagnosis of lower tract UTIs.  Yet, for some inexplicable reason, they were adopted internationally as the ‘gold standard’ test to identify all urinary tract infections.

The information sheet may be helpful for sufferers to take to their GP or urologist.  Also, show your doctor our website and point out the Published Medical Research.