Bengaluru-based urologists and nephrologists opine that more women compared to men suffer from urinary tract infections in the City.
Most women do not empty their bladder for long hours as they hesitate to use poorly maintained public toilets. In the process, they contract urinary tract infections and in the long run it affects the kidneys, doctors say.
“More women compared to men suffer from urinary tract infections because they do not urinate frequently. Normally, human beings should urinate once every three-four hours. But many women empty their bladder once in seven to eight hours because of lack of hygienic toilets in public places, workplaces and even educational institutions” said Dr Prasanna Venkatesh, consultant urologist and managing director of NU Hospitals, Rajajinagar.
Dr Ajith Benedict Rayan, vice president, Hosmat Hospital, pointed out that the ratio of men to women suffering from urinary infection is 1:3. Many women with urinary infections do not come forward for treatment because of social stigma. Instead, they try home remedies, alternative treatments and assume that drinking lots of water will cure the problem. Also, it has been found that more married women suffer from urinary tract infection because their spouses are carriers of the bacterial infection, he added.
Women are more prone to this kind of infection because of their urinal passage is shorter when compared to men, said Dr H Sudarshan Ballal, medical director, Manipal Health Enterprises.
“We get 10-15 urinal and 100 kidney infection cases a day. It is also found that one-third of women, after attaining puberty, suffer from urinal infection at least once in their lifetime. Prolonged and repeated urinal infections lead to kidney problems and studies show that over 10 per cent adults have kidney diseases,” he said.
The number of children suffering from urinary tract infections is also high. This is because toilets in schools are also poorly maintained, said Dr Prasanna.