Women who suffer from urological problems often dont realize how common and treatable they are. Though these issues are not life threatening,living with these complaints can be inconvenient and frustrating. Most of the ladies ignore these minor complaints which further lead to incurable situation causing silent suffering life long.

The following are some of the common female urological concerns which every women must be aware:

Womenof all ages right from childhood are prone to UTI, though the reasons for the infections change according to the age. Burning urination, increased frequency, lower abdominal pain, cloudy urine or foul smelling urine are the common symptoms. If these early signs are ignored, the infection can worsen and lead to blood in the urine, fever, vomiting and  frank sepsis.( Infection entering the blood stream)

• Drink plenty of water (2-2.5 litres per day). Maintain proper bladder and bowel habits.
• Do not with hold urine for a long time Timely voiding and proper hygiene  is important.
• Wipe the toilet from front to back  and empty your bladder before and after sexual contact.
• Personal hygeine during periods has to be taken care of.
• Diabetes control is of utmost importance. 
• Appopriate antibiotics according to urine culture and sensitivity is needed for complete cure of the infection.
• If there is recurrent UTI a detailed evaluaton using ultrasound scan of abdomen and cystoscopy are needed.

Dr Nithya R MBBS, MS (General Surgery), MCh (Urology) DNB (Urology), the author of this article, is a Consultant Urologist at KIMSHealth Thiruvananthapuram