Urinary Tract Infection - more-

Last week I offered an article about UTI's - urinary tract infection - and I received several e mails and calls concerning this and a couple are below.

This is a VERY serious health problem that many gay men need to

be aware of as it really is VERY debilitating.

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Dear John: I was so glad to see your editorial last week concerning the UTI you had in 2022. I originally had the same thing ten years ago and you are correct in warning others of the seriousness of it.

My wife suffers from this as every few years she gets a bout and one time ended up in hospital on an antibiotic drip for 6 weeks and she was completely out of it, and until this time I have to confess to not taking it as seriously as I should, until I caught a UTI myself.

I was fucking this guy and while I cannot explain it, I knew something was wrong but my dick was hard and the arse very willing and - a few days later I felt aches all over - and I mean - REALLY aches and pain in all my joints. I thought I was getting a cold and spent a day in bed and after that could hardly get out of bed and thank God my wife recognised the symptoms and called the doctor as I doubt I could have managed getting to the doctor on my own for it turns out I had lost something like 10lb in a few days and was so weak.

Antibiotics followed and I did have to have 4 courses over 3 months as it kept going and then coming back worse than before and your article stated it can become resistant to antibiotics and BOY it really did, until a VERY strong antibiotic with just 3 tablets given, this time knocked it on its head and I was in recovery within days of this new stronger drug but it did take another 3 months to fully feel I was back to normal.

Like you, I have never fucked since and it has given me a fear I never had before. Fear of being that helpless again and as a very healthy and active man, to be brought down that far and that quickly really made me appreciate good health and how quick something can destroy that.

This was ten years ago and I have never had another bout but have never fucked a guy since. It's in the poo - e coli - and is deadly.

Thanks John. Your article hopefully will be a wake up call for many.

John. K. ( Liverpool )

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John. I encountered the UTI bug last year and was quite ill with it. Luckily I went straight to the doctor and she recognised what was wrong straight away - and blatantly asked me if I had been having man to man sex as this is caught by anal intercourse - and as embarrassed as I was, being as ill as I was - didn't care what she asked and I admitted yes.

.

She told me all about what it was and how women catch it and it is found in gay men more these days as more are not using condoms, and it went quite quickly - BUT not after a couple of weeks of intense bed sweats, horrendous cold shivers and headaches and body aches like I had never experienced before. I thought I was dying.

Your article hopefully will inform gay men about the risks involved in bare backing.

Michael ( Denver USA )

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My Mother was 5 moths in hospital with a UTI and she was up and down and up and down and it seemed that every time the hospital said she could go home, she would go down with another period of UTI and once again be so ill she couldn't focus her eyes on you - hardly even knew you were there - and we all thought it was the end. She had dementia but the UTI completely made her ten times worse and she couldn't speak and hadn't a clue where she was - and this was all the UTI not the dementia.

The doctor got her back eventually to how she was before the UTI and while she still had dementia, at least she could talk and keep up with us but not for long and when well again, it did leave its mark as she could never watch TV again as she simply couldn't concentrate and remember what she was watching, and this was the damage left from the UTI and not the dementia.

It was tragic to see her in this way and the hospital did what they could but very slowly and the weeks and months ticked by before she was well again.

Michael J. ( Clapham - London )

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