Persistent Urinary Symptoms: Exploring Causes Beyond UTIs

Question
I had previously thought I was one of those women who get 3 UTI's a year or so, however, when I went to the doc today in a large practice, he reviewed the last 4 doctor visits for UTI symptoms and said all the UA's except one were clean.  Since today's UA was normal, he did not prescribe anything for my sypmtoms today.  How could I have extreme burning, pelvic pain, concentrated urine, frequency and urgency if these haven't been UTI's?  It's not that I love taking amoxicillin, I promise!

Answer
Hi,

Remeber the symptoms of UTI are largely from the urethra.  Usually urethritis is infectious, but not always.  There are other forms of urethritis, such as chemical urethritis that can persist for a long time.  Often these patients are treated with antibiotics several times a year.  I had one patient with a similar scenario that had an inflammatory urethra reaction to her bath oils.  We only figured this out by having her change products.  But once we removed that chemical, all her sympoms resolved.