{"id":41,"date":"2020-02-12T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T22:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthissues24.co.za\/?p=41"},"modified":"2020-02-12T22:00:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T22:00:37","slug":"how-can-you-test-for-a-uti-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/how-can-you-test-for-a-uti-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"How can you test for a UTI at home?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> The dipstick\u00a0<strong>test<\/strong>\u00a0kit contains specially treated plastic strips called dipsticks. You hold them in your urine stream or dip them in a sample of your urine. The strips\u00a0<strong>test<\/strong>\u00a0for a substance (called nitrite) produced by most\u00a0<strong>UTIs<\/strong>. Certain types of strips also\u00a0<strong>test<\/strong>\u00a0for white blood cells (leukocytes). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can buy dipstick test kits without a prescription. You use them at home to check for\u00a0urinary tract infections (UTIs). Talk to your doctor about using a test kit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0urinary tract\u00a0consists of the kidneys, bladder,\u00a0ureters, and\u00a0urethra. Urine in the bladder is normally sterile. This means it does not contain any bacteria or other germs (such as\u00a0fungi). But bacteria can enter the urinary tract through the urethra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UTIs are more common in women and girls than in men. This may be partly because the\u00a0female urethra\u00a0is shorter and closer to the\u00a0anus. This allows bacteria from the intestines to come into contact more easily with the urethra. Men also have an antibacterial substance in their\u00a0prostate gland\u00a0that reduces their risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dipstick test kit contains specially treated plastic strips called dipsticks. You hold them in your urine stream or dip them in a sample of your urine. The strips test for a substance (called nitrite) produced by most UTIs. Certain types of strips also test for white blood cells (leukocytes). Some types of dipsticks can test for both nitrite and leukocytes. But most types test for only one or the other. An area on the end of the strip changes color if you have an infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most UTIs are easy to cure with\u00a0antibiotics. But an untreated infection may spread to the kidneys and cause a more serious problem. If you use a home test kit, make sure that your doctor knows about any abnormal test results. This will help make sure that a serious problem is not missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dipstick\u00a0test\u00a0kit contains specially treated plastic strips called dipsticks. You hold them in your urine stream or dip them in a sample of your urine. The strips\u00a0test\u00a0for a substance (called nitrite) produced by most\u00a0UTIs. Certain types of strips also\u00a0test\u00a0for white blood cells (leukocytes). You can buy dipstick test kits without a prescription. You use them\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/how-can-you-test-for-a-uti-at-home\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionline24.co.za\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}