UTI self testing

Everyday living
1

Hi,

I read on here a while ago that people bought UTI testing strips. I have had difficulty finding a chemist that sells these. If you have bought these could you let me know from which outlet.

Thanks christine

1 Like
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Hi, Sssuuee does self testing. I`ll prompt her to read your post.

pollsx

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Promoted as Boudica asked so nicely.

Hi Christine

I get Siemens self testing strips from Amazon. You can get either the 8 x tests or the 10 x tests.

Do you know how to do your own testing once you get the strips?

I’ll give the info anyway as it’s always useful for other people:

When you take a sample into your GP surgery, they ‘dip’ the urine with a urinalysis test stick. What they are checking for (when looking for a UTI) is the presence of leucocytes, protein and nitrites. Also blood in the urine, though of course there could be other reasons to find blood in a woman’s urine.

I tend to buy Siemens test strips as I think they are the best, and I buy from Amazon as it’s easy and reliable. Obviously you can buy other brands and from other places. The strips come in a plastic cylinder with a grid of results printed on the side. The left side are negative and further to the right are the levels of positive reactions. Each type of test has a time that it’ll take to react, from 30 seconds to up to 2 minutes. You need to keep the cylinder tightly done up and dry. Moisture can ruin the test strips.

What you do to test your own urine is to take a test strip out of the container. Check that the little coloured boxes on the strip are all the same as the ‘negative’ boxes on the left hand side of the results table. If they’re not, then they may have got moisture in and they’ll be no good.

Either wee over the test strip, or wee into a clean container, then dip your strip into the urine.

You ‘read’ the results from bottom to top. Obviously you can generally ignore the things like glucose and ketones, but it’s a time thing. The bottom squares take less time to show results.

What you need to check for for are:

Leucocytes, the presence of these shows inflammation

Nitrites, the presence shows infection

Protein also shows infection (and if there’s blood in the urine, there will also be protein)

If you find that the leucocytes show faintly pink, but nitrites and protein are negative, drink lots of water through the day and retest later. You’ll usually find that sorts out a slight bit of inflammation.

If you have positive nitrites and / or protein, (generally you’d also find leucocytes) then take a sample to your GP surgery. I always check that a positive sample has been sent to the lab for complete testing as their first line reaction is usually to give you some basic antibiotics that don’t always work. Many bacteria are resistant to for eg. trimethoprim (a common antibiotic given by GPs for UTI).

Let me know if you need any more info. Obviously I am not a trained nurse or doctor, I’ve learned all of the above info over time. As far as I know, everything I’ve said is correct, but if you want to check it out, run what I’ve said past your MS nurse (mine originally gave me the information.)

Sue

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Thanks polis,great networking.

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Thanks sue,

Just what I needed. I think I’ve been having uti 's for a long time. Can’t get to see GP when I need to. Sometimes I retain urine others times I’m going all the time and get terrible spasms and massive mood changes during these episodes.

I will order some today.

Thanks christine