How to Do A Home Test for Urinary Tract Infections (UTI)? A Guide

July 23, 2024

How does testing for UTIs at home work? Recreating sterile laboratory conditions isn’t easily achievable for the vast majority of patients, but with this guide, you’ll receive the best possible instructions for testing for a UTI at home. Generally speaking, after ordering your urine testing kit – consisting of a collection cup and a few dipsticks – you need to take a clean catch urine sample and use the dipstick provided to see how it reacts against your urine. Different tests may test for different parameters, including nitrite content, urine pH, and leukocyte presence. For our step-by-step guide on testing for UTIs at home, read the article below.

Testing for a UTI at Home – When Is It Necessary?

A urine test, or urinalysis, is one of the staple tests used in primary diagnostics to obtain some insight into the patient’s health. Therefore, whenever you suspect something may be off with your urinary tract, ordering a test kit online and testing for a UTI at home can definitely be a viable replacement for a physical doctor’s appointment.

There are a number of conditions with symptoms affecting your urinary tract or various qualities of the urine you excrete. These could include:

Because these conditions often exist with one another or increase your likelihood of contracting other diseases, you should consider taking a urine sample regularly. A full urine panel offers invaluable insight into your body’s overall state and serves as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to scan for early signs of serious conditions.

How Does Testing for UTIs at Home Work?

Should you observe unsettling changes in your toilet habits, you may want to consider performing a urinalysis. Below, you’ll find a list of symptoms that may warrant performing this test:

Urine discoloration
Blood in your urine
Foamy urine
Burning or itching during urination
Tenderness in lower abdomen
Needing to pass urine frequently
Feeling like your bladder isn’t fully empty after urinating

While many of these could point to a benign problem, such as simple dehydration, if these issues persist, testing may be necessary to find out more about what is going on,

After ordering and acquiring your at-home diagnostic kit, you simply need to follow the instructions contained in the packaging. They will typically inform you of the steps and procedures to ensure the sample you take produces reliable results, as well as offer an understanding of what the results you obtain could mean.

How Do I Test for a UTI at Home?

Now that you know the why of at-home testing for UTIs, here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the entire process:

Step 1: Preparation

First off, it’s recommended to collect your sample from the first urine you pass in the morning before ingesting any food. To properly go through the process, wash your hands and your genital area to remove surface bacteria. Ensure the sterile collection container doesn’t come in contact with anything that could contaminate it and affect the test results.

Step 2: Taking the Sample

Open the container and collect a sample of the urine from midstream. You shouldn’t use the first part of the urine since that can also collect unwanted bacteria that could skew the final result. Additionally, don’t overfill the container – most come with an etched marker indicating the level of liquid needed for proper testing.

After collecting your sample, set it aside carefully and proceed with the next step.

Step 3: Interpreting Results

Using the dipsticks provided in the test kit, dip the strip into your urine container and keep it there for the required time (stipulated in the instructions). Afterward, remove it and wait a couple minutes for the chemicals on the strip to begin reacting with your urine.

Once the colors on the stick begin to change, refer to the instruction sheet to understand the test results.

Step 4: Next Steps

If the testing strip indicates a significant presence of leukocytes or nitrites – common UTI markers – in your urine, a doctor’s visit may be necessary. Consulting with your healthcare provider is important for further evaluation and treatment, especially if the symptoms worsen or don’t subside with home remedies.

The Takeaway

Knowing how to test for a UTI at home is crucial when you want to save time and get a proper diagnosis without having to schedule an appointment beforehand. The many advancements in medicine over the years have given us the right tools to not just treat home testing as a stopgap but rather to have it work as a valuable and important piece of the overall diagnostics puzzle.

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