How to get rid of a UTI: best treatments and natural remedies

A urinary tract infection is an infection that affects the parts of your body that process urine. This includes your bladder, urethra, and kidneys. When you get a UTI, bacteria build up in different parts of your urinary tract and cause inflammation. This can also cause pain, and may also make you need to pee frequently and urgently.

For some people, UTIs are an occasional nuisance. But for others, they can cause severe pain. Sometimes, they can also lead to kidney infections that can cause kidney damage – which is very serious.

Symptoms of a UTI include:

• a painful or burning sensation when you pee
• needing to pee more at night
• pee that looks cloudy, dark, or smells strongly
• feeling the need to pee suddenly, urgently, or more often than normal

Serious symptoms that mean you need to speak to a doctor right away include:

• blood in your pee
• having lower stomach pain or back pain just under the ribs
• having a high temperature or feeling hot or shivering
• having a low temperature of below 36°C
• feeling confused or drowsy

Always see a doctor if:

• it’s your first time having UTI symptoms
• you have a penis
• you're pregnant
• you get UTI symptoms right after having surgery
• your symptoms keep getting worse or they don’t get any better after 2 days
• your symptoms come back even after treatment

If you’ve got a UTI or you’re worried about getting one and want to know your treatment options, there are 3 main categories to consider:

• prescription antibiotics
• home remedies for UTIs
• supplements

The best UTI treatment is prescription antibiotics, such as nitrofurantoin. This is the most effective way to treat things like cystitis, with UTI cure rates in over 27 clinical trials ranging between 79% to 92%. That being said, antibiotics aren’t always necessary. Sometimes doctors will suggest waiting up to 2 full days after your UTI symptoms start before you take antibiotics.

This is because, unless your symptoms are serious, your body can often clear the infection by itself. Doctors may sometimes recommend UTI treatment without antibiotics because using antibiotics too much makes them less effective. Some microbes have evolved so they are resistant to antibiotics, which means antibiotics may become less effective in future.

UTI treatment at home can include a range of self-care methods you can try to help you recover from UTIs. Although most of these home remedies for UTIs haven’t been proven to work in clinical trials, many people find they help with symptoms. Generally, home remedies are a good place to start if you have a mild bladder infection that you’ve had for less than 2 days.

Supplements are another choice which you could try. However, it’s important to be aware that most supplements haven’t been definitively proven to work for UTIs.

If you’ve got symptoms of a UTI, it’s likely to take 2 to 3 days for you to recover, no matter what treatment option you go for. There’s no way to speed up recovery other than sticking to your treatment plan.

If your UTI is mild, it will usually go away by itself after a few days. You can help make sure your UTI doesn’t last longer by following your doctor's advice on treating your UTI at home and not doing anything to make it worse.

If you do need to take a course of antibiotics, your doctor will usually prescribe:

• 3 days’ worth if you have a vagina
• 7 days’ worth if you have a penis or are pregnant

Your symptoms should clear up after this short course of treatment, but if they don’t, then you may need to try a different antibiotic and your UTI may last longer.

Yes, antibiotics aren’t always necessary and your body does have ways of fighting off UTIs without prescription medications.

How your body fights a UTI

Your body has a number of defences which it can use to fight off UTIs by itself, including:

• a mucus layer
• peptides
• immunoglobulins
• immune cell defences, including cytokines and chemokines

These defences help weaken harmful bacteria and avoid or fight infections. Normally, with a bit of time, these defences are enough to help you recover from a UTI.

When to consider antibiotics

If your body’s natural defences are struggling to fight off a UTI, then you may get more severe symptoms, or your infection won’t go away after a few days. That’s when it’s a good idea to talk to a doctor or order cystitis treatment online.

A course of prescription antibiotics can help your body fight off the infection by weakening the infectious bacteria more.

“Home treatments for UTIs do appear to help with prevention of infections for some people, and some people find that they work for them. However, it’s always important to listen to your body. If a UTI is getting worse, then I’d strongly recommend using clinically-proven treatments such as antibiotics if the UTI doesn’t clear up by itself after two days.” – Dr Brenda Ikeji, Medical Editor.

For milder UTIs, it’s often possible to treat them by yourself. Here are a number of different ways to treat a UTI at home. Remember, not all of these treatments are clinically proven and this list does not constitute medical advice. You should always check with your GP if you’re in doubt.

1. Drinking lots of water

Dehydration can make it harder for your body to fight off infections like UTIs.

Although reviews of the effect of drinking more fluids to treat UTIs in the general population don’t show a clear link, a study into UTIs in care homes showed drinking extra water led to 58% less need for antibiotics and 36% less hospital admissions.

2. Peeing regularly

Peeing regularly is important to help flush the bacteria out of your system. Make sure you don’t try to hold your pee in if you can avoid it. When you do go to the toilet, make sure you completely empty your bladder each time.

3. Cranberry juice for UTIs

Cranberry juice is a well-known home remedy for UTIs, but there is sometimes a bit of confusion as to how it works. Several studies have found that people who drank cranberry juice developed fewer UTIs than those who didn't drink the juice (although some studies didn't find a difference).

But this doesn’t show drinking cranberry juice will help you if you already have a UTI and there’s no evidence cranberry juice can help you recover from a UTI faster.

It’s possible that there could be other explanations for the effects of cranberry juice too. If someone suddenly started drinking lots more cranberry juice, they might be more hydrated, so this could be the reason cranberry juice helps.

Cranberry extract may also help with preventing UTIs but there’s no evidence that it can help you recover faster from an existing UTI.

4. Other sources of vitamin C

Vitamin C-rich foods and drinks, which happen to include cranberry juice, are also believed to help with managing UTIs. One small study on pregnant women found that only 12.7% got a UTI when taking daily vitamin C supplements, compared to 29.1% who didn’t take vitamin C supplements.

But, like with cranberry juice, the evidence is only really that it can prevent UTIs, not cure them. Even then, the evidence that vitamin C prevents UTIs is still unclear.

5. Fruit

Various fruits have been looked at for helping with UTIs. Studies looking at different kinds of fruits for UTIs generally show mixed evidence. They also usually involve testing fruit extracts on bacteria directly and not on patients with UTIs.

Including a lot of fresh fruit in your diet can be helpful but there’s no guarantee it will cure or prevent UTIs.

6. Probiotic yoghurts

Probiotic yoghurts are thought to help UTIs by rebalancing the bacteria in and around your bladder and genitals. Again, these are only meant to prevent UTIs and not cure them. The research on probiotics for preventing UTIs is limited and there isn’t yet enough evidence to draw firm conclusions.

7. D-mannose for UTI treatment

D-mannose is a type of sugar that is naturally found in fruits. It can be turned into a supplement meant to help you avoid UTIs. A review of studies into D- mannose for UTIs shows that it does have an impact on preventing UTIs. One possible explanation is that, when D-mannose leaves your body in your pee, it stops the UTI bacteria E-coli from attaching to the urinary tract.

8. Zinc

Zinc supplements could be a possible recurrent UTI treatment. One study found that people who have recurrent UTIs may have low zinc levels in their bloodstream, which suggests supplements could help some people. More research would be needed to prove this, however.

9. Essential oils

Essential oils have been looked at for treating UTIs and one study suggests that tea tree and thyme oils in particular might have antibacterial properties that could help kill the kinds of bacteria that cause UTIs.

Numerous herbal extracts have been looked at for treating UTIs. Some herbal supplements that people use include lemongrass, echinacea, clove, cinnamon and holy basil. At ZAVA, we don’t recommend trying herbal treatments for UTIs to treat an active infection since there isn’t enough existing clinical research to show that they are effective. If you do decide to try herbal supplements, always make sure you’re buying them from a shop that is safe and regulated.

Generally, some antibiotics are safe to take for UTIs if you’re pregnant, however, not all antibiotics are recommended during pregnancy and some are not recommended depending on which trimester you are in. If you suspect you have a UTI, talk to your doctor immediately about UTI treatment during pregnancy.

Pregnancy can increase your risk of getting UTIs. Having an untreated UTI during pregnancy can lead to health risks for you and your baby, so it’s important you see a doctor and get treatment as soon as you get symptoms of a UTI. This may mean taking antibiotics to make sure you recover. It’s really important you don’t avoid getting help or using antibiotics.

There are a few differences in the way UTIs affect you depending on whether you have a penis or a vagina:

If you have a UTI and a penis, this is considered a ‘complicated UTI’ because of the way that your urinary tract system is set up. Generally, this means a longer course of antibiotics might be needed (7 days instead of 3). However, the treatments used are still the same.

If you have a UTI and a vagina, then you’ll usually be prescribed a shorter course of antibiotics (3 days).

Drinking plenty of water and going to the toilet when you need to go is good advice for recovering from a UTI and preventing one.