Guidance
Terms used in the guideline
Recurrent urinary tract infection
Recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) in adults is defined as repeated UTI with a frequency of 2 or more UTIs in the last 6 months or 3 or more UTIs in the last 12 months (European Association of Urology [EAU] guidelines on urological infections [2017]).
Recurrent UTI is diagnosed in children and young people under 16 years if they have:
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2 or more episodes of UTI with acute pyelonephritis/upper UTI or
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1 episode of UTI with acute pyelonephritis plus 1 or more episode of UTI with cystitis/lower UTI or
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3 or more episodes of UTI with cystitis/lower UTI.
See the NICE guideline on urinary tract infection in under 16s.
Trigger
Some people (mainly women) may be able to identify 1 or more triggers (for example, sexual intercourse) that often brings on a UTI. These triggers may vary for different people.