Info on UTI (Urinary Tract Infections)

Girls are more likely than boys to get a UTI. That’s because their urethras are much shorter than boys’ urethras. The shorter urethra means bacteria can get up into the bladder more easily and cause an infection there.

Some of the bacteria that cause UTIs normally live in your intestines. Each time you have a bowel movement (poop), some of these bacteria come out of your body. If they aren’t wiped away properly, they stay on your skin. In girls, this means they can grow near the opening of the urethra because their urethras are closer to where they wipe. From there, bacteria can get inside the urethra, causing irritation to the urethra. This is called urethritis (say: yur-ih-thrye-tus).

It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump from the urethra to the bladder. If the bacteria go there, they can cause a bladder infection, which is a type of UTI. You may also hear a bladder infection called cystitis (say: sis-tye-tus), which really means an irritation of the bladder.

Sometimes the harmful bacteria keep spreading. From the bladder, they may head into one of the ureters and climb up into a kidney. This type of UTI is called pyelonephritis (say: pye-loh-nih-frye-tus), or a kidney infection, and it’s serious because it can damage the kidneys and make you very sick.