The most affected by urinary tract infections: men or women?

First of all you must know that The frequency of urinary tract infections depends on age and sex.

Symptoms of urinary tract infection

• Pain or burns while urinating.
• An abnormally high frequency of urination during the day (sometimes the need to urinate also occurs at night).
• A lingering feeling of needing to urinate.
• Troubled urine that gives off an unpleasant odor.
• A gravity in the lower abdomen.
• Sometimes blood in the urine.
• No fever if it is a simple cystitis.

Urinary tract infection : women
Women are much more affected than men, because the woman’s urethra, shorter than that of man, facilitates the entry of bacteria into the bladder. It is estimated that in North America, 20% to 40% of women have had at least one urinary tract infection. Many women are going to contract many of them over the course of their lives. About 2% to 3% of adult women would have cystitis every year.

Urinary tract infection : men
Young men are not affected by this condition, but mature men with prostate disorders are more at risk.

As for children, they are more rarely affected. About 2% of newborns and infants contract urinary tract infections. It is mostly male babies who have an abnormality in the urinary tract that suffer from it. At the age of 6, 7% of girls and 2% of boys presented at least once a urinary tract infection.

Causes
Normally, urine is sterile. It contains 96% water, salts and organic components, but is free of micro-organisms. The urinary system has many means of defense against infections:

• The urinary flow expels the bacteria and makes it more difficult to climb to the bladder and the kidneys;
• the acidity of the urine (PH less than 5.5) inhibits the growth of bacteria;
• The very smooth surface of the urethra makes it difficult to reassemble the bacteria;
• The shape of the ureters and bladder prevents the urine from being lifted back to the kidneys;
• The immune system in general infection control;
• The bladder wall contains immune cells as well as antibacterial substances;
• In men, prostate secretions contain substances that slow down the multiplication of bacteria in the urethra.

However, in the case of urinary tract infection, infectious agents (bacteria in most cases) manage to “colonize” the urinary system. The urine is then contaminated: it is by searching for the presence of bacteria in the urine that the doctor confirms the diagnosis of urinary infection. Bacterial contamination is often facilitated by not drinking enough.

In more than 80% of urinary tract infections, the germ in issue is an Escherichia coli-type intestinal bacterium. Other commonly found bacteria are Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus saprophytic-us, Klebsiella… Some sexually transmitted infections (Gonococci, Chlamydia) may also be manifested by a urethritis.

Very rarely, urinary tract infections can be caused by bacteria that have spread to the urinary system from an infection located elsewhere in the body.