Sneaky Causes of UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections) and How to Avoid Them

3. Taking Certain Drugs Some medications — including antihistamines, antipsychotic drugs, decongestants, and anticholinergic drugs — can cause you to retain urine. That doesn’t mean you should stop taking them, Dr. Rabin says. Just be aware of the extra risk, drink lots of water, and try to empty your bladder completely when you visit the restroom to avoid the risk of infection.

4. Wiping the Wrong Way There’s a reason your mother taught you to wipe from front to back after you pee or have a bowel movement: Going in the opposite direction can help bacteria travel from your anus to your urethra and into your bladder, Rabin says. In fact, when researchers evaluated the behavior patterns of premenopausal women who were susceptible to recurrent urinary tract infections, they found that wiping from back to front increased their UTI risk by 64 percent and that the vast majority of infections (66 percent) were due to E. coli (a bacteria that normally lives in the intestines), according to a study.

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5. Going Through Perimenopause or Menopause As estrogen levels start to drop with age, midlife women may experience some thinning of the tissues in the vagina and bladder, and the nerves and muscles may not function as well, which can cause difficulty emptying the bladder fully, Rabin says. These changes can in turn foster bacterial growth, increasing the risk of UTIs.

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6. Having Diabetes Research has found that the frequency of UTIs increases in women with type 1 diabetes who have poor blood sugar control. People with type 2 diabetes, especially older women who have high levels of hemoglobin A1C (a marker of average blood sugar levels over the previous three months), have a higher risk of UTIs, a separate review of research found. Adding insult to misery, UTIs tend to be more common, more severe, and harder to treat in people with type 2 diabetes, partly because higher levels of sugar in the urine can promote the growth of bacteria, according to another review.

7. Wearing Little Lingerie Wearing a thong, a teddy, or string-bikini underwear may make you feel sexy, but it can trap bacteria in the vaginal area and compress the sensitive tissue there, making you more susceptible to vaginal infections and UTIs. “There are only a couple of inches of space between the openings to the urethra, the vagina, and the rectum,” Rabin notes. “Tight underwear can act as a superhighway for bacteria from the anus to travel to the vaginal area.”