An At-Home UTI Test Should Never Replace a Visit to Your Doctor — Here's Why

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An at-home test can’t come up with a treatment plan.

, it's best practice to call up your doctor and get into the office for testing. However, there may be a part of you wondering if you can skip that trip and use an at-home UTI test to confirm the issue for yourself instead.

However, as Dr. Lee explained, not all bacteria that cause UTIs produce nitrite, which could lead to a false negative, and elevated leukocytes can also be experienced outside of infection. The tests done at your doctor's office or a lab are much more involved and thorough to provide patients with accurate results. In fact, Dr. Lee called them"substantially more sophisticated" than urine dip-stick tests and at-home UTI tests.When you go to a medical professional with suspicions of a UTI, two separate tests are typically performed: a urinalysis and a urine culture. Dr.

The urine culture test also indicates what antibiotics the bacteria may be resistant to, which can help doctors diagnose the most efficient treatment plan. "None of these properties are detected from an at-home test, therefore I would not recommend the regular use of these tests," Dr. Lee said."The bottom line is that the urine culture is the mainstay for diagnosis of a UTI, and this can only be performed in a doctor's office, hospital, or lab.

 

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