Beware of acute cystitis in pregnant and postmenopausal women

The article was professionally consulted by Specialist Doctor I Nguyen Hung - Endocrinologist - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Da Nang International General Hospital. The doctor has 36 years of working experience.

Acute cystitis occurs at any age, but it is more common in adults and is especially common in pregnant and postmenopausal women due to the influence of hormonal changes. If not detected and treated promptly, it will lead to chronic cystitis and can cause dangerous complications.

The urge to urinate is the most obvious symptom, accompanied by painful urination, pain along the way from the urethra to the bladder during urination and persisting for many minutes after urinating. For pregnant women, there is often a need to urinate, urinary incontinence, and frequent urination but only a few drops. Urine has a strong odor, cloudy color, sediment, sometimes accompanied by pus or blood. Symptoms include pain in the lower back during and after urination, burning pain when urinating, pubic pain, pain and tenderness in the lower abdomen, nausea, headache, fatigue, sometimes high fever. With menopausal women, the patient feels like burning when urinating, accompanied by pain behind the pubic bone. Diarrhea, frequent urination, possibly bloody urine at the end of the yard. Urine is often cloudy, has an unpleasant odor, and is sometimes bloody. Systemic signs are rare, only when signs are severe. There is chills, fever, and pain in areas behind the pubic bone when pressed.

Acute cystitis will first make patients worry, sad, bewildered, especially when there are symptoms of cloudy urine, blood in urine. This greatly affects general health and daily life, especially newlyweds or the elderly.
If not detected or afraid not to go to the hospital in time, acute cystitis will turn to chronic cystitis, symptoms will appear continuously and persistently, causing a lot of troubles for the patient. . In particular, acute cystitis that is not completely cured can cause inflammation upstream to the kidneys causing nephritis (pyelonephritis) and the worst consequence is kidney failure. Acute cystitis can cause sepsis - a very life-threatening disease if not detected or detected late.

Acute cystitis is even more dangerous for special subjects such as pregnant women and women going through menopause:
Dangerous complications of nephritis - acute pyelonephritis in pregnant women can include: such as pregnant women prone to shock, septic shock causing circulatory failure, acute respiratory failure, acute renal failure,...; The fetus is prone to fetal distress, premature birth. These conditions are common in pregnant women with a history of nephritis - pyelonephritis caused by stones, cystitis due to stones, urinary tract malformations before pregnancy without being detected. For menopausal women who are not treated promptly, a typical episode of cystitis usually lasts from 3-5 days, manifested by painful urination with burning sensation along the urethra during or after urination, must be continuously Frequent urination. Leads to extremely dangerous consequences for health. Repeated disease will lead to chronic disease that adversely affects later treatment. It can be seen that acute cystitis often occurs in women and has a serious impact on the patient's health. Therefore, to prevent acute cystitis, it is necessary to clean the external genitals daily, especially before and after sex. When abnormal symptoms are detected, it is necessary to consult a doctor promptly.