Recurrent cystitis after intercourse: why the gynaecologist has a say

Recurrent urinary tract infections (R-UTIs), and specifically post-coital cystitis (PCC), are becoming a clinical challenge, increasingly relevant in terms of women’s suffering, couple problems and social costs: quantifiable, in terms of out-patients visits, exams, antibiotics, loss of work-days and non-quantifiable, in terms of distress, suffering, sexual and relational problems.
Listening to women’s wording, asking proper questions, carefully examining the vulva, the pelvic floor, the vagina, will increase the diagnostic accuracy, the appropriate reading of comorbidities and the design of a personalised treatment protocol.
The gynaecologist may help women in preventing R-UTIs, by diagnosing and addressing the many factors he/she is familiar with by training that are not usually considered in the urological approach. A close collaboration between urologists and gynaecologist is helpful in reducing R-UTIs in women.

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