What is cystitis ?
Cystitis is inflammation of the bladder, usually caused by a bladder infection. It’s a common type of urinary tract infection (UTI), particularly in women.
Dukes Pharmacy in Muswell Hill offers online Doctor service for Cystitis treatment in muswell hill area. This way you can get treatment for cystitis safely without having to see a doctor face to face.
In this blog post, we look at what Cystitis is, its symptoms, possible causes, treatments and prevention methods.
Cystitis Symptoms
The main symptoms of cystitis include:
- pain, burning or stinging when you pee
- needing to pee more often and urgently than normal
- urine that’s dark, cloudy or strong smelling
- pain low down in your tummy
- feeling generally unwell, achy, sick and tired
Cystitis causes
Most cases are thought to occur when bacteria that live harmlessly in the bowel or on the skin get into the bladder through the urethra (the tube that carries urine out of your body).
It’s not always clear how this happens.
Women may get cystitis more often than men because their anus (back passage) is closer to their urethra and their urethra is much shorter, which means bacteria may be able to get into the bladder more easily.
Read more about the causes of cystitis.
Cystitis Treatments
The usual prescribed treatment for cystitis is a course of antibiotics when cystitis symptoms have been troublesome for several days
Cystitis treatment over counter
There is such treatment over the counter for Cystitis. The treatment needs to be prescribed first. Dukes Pharmacy offers online Doctor service which can prescribe the treatment as necessary and the medicine can then be collected from the pharmacy.
Cystitis medicine
Trimethoprim is an effective anti-biotic medication that can quickly and safely treat cystitis. Trimethoprim works by stopping the infection from spreading. It contains the infection so that your immune system can kill the bacteria (or so that they just die off by themselves). Read more on Trimethoprim.
Other measures
Until you’re feeling better, it may help to:
Some people believe that cranberry drinks and products that reduce the acidity of their urine (such as sodium bicarbonate or potassium citrate) will help. But there’s a lack of evidence to suggest they’re effective
Cystitis Prevention
If you get cystitis frequently, there are some things you can try that may stop it coming back.
But it’s not clear how effective most of these measures are.
These measures include:
- not using perfumed bubble bath, soap or talcum powder around your genitals (use plain unperfumed varieties)
- having a shower, rather than a bath (this avoids exposing your genitals to the chemicals in your cleaning products for too long)
- going to the toilet as soon as you need to pee and always emptying your bladder fully
- staying well hydrated (drinking plenty of fluids may help to stop bacteria multiplying in your bladder)
- always wiping your bottom from front to back when you go to the toilet
- emptying your bladder as soon as possible after having sex
- not using a diaphragm for contraception (you may wish to use another method of contraception instead)
- wearing underwear made from cotton, rather than synthetic material such as nylon, and not wearing tight jeans and trousers
Drinking cranberry juice has traditionally been recommended as a way of reducing your chances of getting cystitis.
But large studies have suggested it doesn’t make a significant difference.
