For the 1.3 million women who make the transition through menopause each year in the United States, life can get a little bumpy. Many women encounter side effects that range from hot flashes and night sweats to vaginal dryness and increased urinary tract infections (UTIs).
It’s this last item — UTIs — that the experienced team of healthcare providers here at Macomb Medical Clinic wants to take a closer look at. More specifically, why post-menopausal women are more prone to UTIs, let’s take a look.
Let’s first discuss why women are more vulnerable to UTIs under any circumstances — they outpace men by a whopping 30 to 1 when it comes to these bacterial infections.
The answer is simple — anatomy and location. First, a woman’s urethra is much shorter than a man’s, which means it’s much easier for bacteria to make the short journey to the bladder.
Second, the opening of the female urethra is quite close to the anal opening, and there’s plenty of opportunity for cross-contamination — bacteria from solid waste migrate toward the urethra opening and get inside. This is why we always counsel women to wipe from front to back.
Now that we better understand why women are in the line of fire when it comes to UTIs, let’s look at why their existing risks increase after transitioning through menopause.
There are a couple of factors at play after menopause, which occurs when your body stops ovulating and producing as much estrogen. These hormones not only facilitate reproduction, but they also make sure that your vaginal health is in good shape for intercourse, pregnancy, and childbirth. In other words, your estrogen hormones helped to maintain healthy vaginal tissues.
So, when the level of these hormones drops, your vaginal tissue health can decline, hence the vaginal dryness that affects a lot of post-menopausal women. However, this effect can also occur around the urethra and the surrounding muscles. When these weaken after menopause, bacteria have an easier time gaining entrance.
Another factor is that estrogen encourages the growth of healthy bacteria around your vagina and urinary tract. Absent these hormones, you may not have enough good bacteria to fight off the bad, leaving you open to more UTIs.
As a practice that promotes preventive medicine, we bring this thinking to post-menopausal UTIs. If you’re experiencing more UTIs post menopause, we might recommend estrogen therapies to boost your vaginal health. You can use either target hormone therapies, like vaginal creams, or a systemic approach like menopause hormone therapy.
There are also some lifestyle habits to stay on top of, such as drinking plenty of water and not holding your urine.
Should a UTI develop despite these preventive efforts, the good news is that we can prescribe you a quick course of antibiotics, which should clear it up quickly.
For expert help with post-menopausal UTIs, look no further than Macomb Medical Clinic. To schedule an appointment at our office in Sterling Heights, Michigan, we invite you to contact us at 586-315-2393. You can also send us a message through our website by clicking here.
