When it feels like you’re raining hellfire into the toilet bowl, it’s fair to wonder what caused you to be cursed with a urinary tract infection. While UTIs are common in women, living through one can be an agonising experience that you’d rather avoid in the future. Now, new research suggests that you could have gotten your UTI from an unexpected source: meat.
That’s the main takeaway from new research published in the journal mBio, which concluded that UTIs caused by meat are much more common than people realise.
Sure, your first priority when you have a UTI is to get treated so you can feel better. But if recurrent UTIs are an issue for you, or if you’d just rather lower your risk of slogging through this health issue again, the meat connection is worth paying attention to. Here’s what’s behind it.
A solid portion of UTIs may be caused by meat
For the study, researchers collected more than 5,700 E.coli specimens from patients with UTIs, along with samples of meat from stores from the same neighbourhoods. They used a special modelling system to estimate whether the E.coli strain started with humans or animals.
After crunching the data, the researchers found that 18% of the UTIs were linked to E.coli strains from meat. (These are known as foodbourne UTIs.) The strains with the highest risk of causing infection were most likely to be found in chicken (38%) and turkey (36%). But beef and pork also contained E.coli that was linked to infections—14% and 12%, respectively.
The researchers discovered that people living in low-income areas had a 60% higher risk of getting a foodbourne UTI compared to those who lived in wealthier neighbourhoods. Also, women and older men were especially vulnerable to UTIs from meat.
How do you get a UTI from meat?
There are a few possible ways you can get a UTI from meat. But it starts with the meat itself. “This is happening because the meat is contaminated,” Lance Price, study co-author and a professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t done anything from a food safety perspective about contaminated meat.”
E.coli can live in the gastrointestinal tracts of animals, and can wind up in the meat from cross-contamination during the slaughtering process, Ellen Shumaker, food safety expert and director of outreach for the Safe Plates program at North Carolina State University, said. “In the event that meat is contaminated with E. coli and a person ingests it, that person is going to be shedding E. coli in their feces,” she said.
That can wind up giving you a UTI when the E.coli in your poop makes its way toward your bladder. “Since the anal area is near the urethra [in women], transfer of this harmful bacteria into the bladder can occur, increasing the risk of a UTI,” Sherry Ross, ob-gyn and women’s health expert at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, said. Women are especially vulnerable to this because of how close the anus is to the urethra (the tube that lets urine out of your body), she explained. “The female anatomy is a set-up for infections of the bladder,” Dr. Ross said.
While having an E.coli infection could cause symptoms like diarrhea, you can also be infected without having any obvious signs, Dr. Shumaker said.
It’s also possible to get a UTI from cross-contamination if you handle infected meat and then don’t wash your hands or other surfaces before touching your body around your urethra, like while wiping, Dr. Ross said.
It’s important to point out that the meat-UTI connection isn’t new. Research published in 2023 found that bacteria from meat likely causes more than half a million UTIs in the US each year.
Here’s how to lower your risk of UTIs if you eat meat.
It’s important to point out that UTIs aren’t just caused by meat — only about 20% are, based on these findings. Still, Dr. Price said, “you should always assume that your meat can be contaminated, and that your chicken and ground turkey are definitely contaminated.” While you don’t need to become a vegetarian to avoid UTIs, experts recommend a few steps to help lower your risk.
Cook your meat properly. Cooking meat to the proper temperature can kill E.coli, Dr. Price points out. (FoodSafety.gov has a nice breakdown of the temperatures to aim for with different types of meat.)
Clean all surfaces and utensils well. Opening up a package of meat can cause infected juices and even aerosols to get on surfaces in your kitchen, Dr. Price said. “There’s a risk of contaminating the surfaces, boards, and knives,” he said. While you’re at it, Dr. Shumaker suggests keeping your produce and ready-to-eat foods away from your raw meat to lower the risk of cross contamination.
Wash your hands well after touching meat. This is a big risk factor, Dr. Shumaker said. “It is possible that someone could become ill if cross-contamination occurred during meat preparation—for example, if not washing hands thoroughly after handling contaminated raw meat and then touching fresh produce,” she said.
Store your meat the right way. Raw meats and poultry should always be stored under ready-to-eat foods in the fridge, per Dr. Shumaker. This lowers the risk that the juices will drip onto food that won’t be cooked.
Pee after sex. During sex, bacteria like E.coli can get pushed up into your urethra, where it could cause an infection, Dr. Ross said. Peeing after sex helps to push it back out, she explained.
Additional ways to lower your risk. Stay well hydrated (peeing frequently helps you push any bacteria out of your bladder), take showers instead of baths, don’t douche or use sprays down there, and wipe from front to back, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Of course, if UTIs are a regular issue for you, it’s important to check in with a healthcare provider. They can do a deeper dive into your health to see what could be behind this and suggest a personalised plan from there. Still, being careful with your meat can’t hurt, regardless of your history with UTIs.
This article originally appeared on SELF.
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