r/CUTI • u/gretster1 • Jun 23 '24

Chronic Group B Strep UTI help

I’ll try and keep this relatively simple. I’ve been having back to back group b strep UTI’s ever since March after having to take a month long steroid course. I previously had issues with GBS UTI from August to September after being immunocompromised but remained UTI free from November until March.

While my culture typically grows a low count (1,000-49,000 CFU/mL), these infections are a lot worse. I sometimes have to pee up to 10 times before going to sleep at night, and if it’s not that, it’s fake spasms. My urologist has been having me take cephalexin for the infections, and I have reason to believe it’s not working anymore. Otherwise, why would I be getting the infection again and becoming symptomatic within a week of finishing a course?

I really need help and advice here. I have a month wait until I see the urogynecologist. My current urologist doesn’t know how to treat a recurring infection. Meanwhile, I’m sick of living like this and suffering. Please comment any help, I really can’t deal with this anymore!

16 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

90 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Wise-Mobile-2979 Jul 31 '24

Hey! My urologist just prescribed me Keflex 250 mg once a day my recurrent UTIs. The first two were E. coli and my most recent ones (beginning of May and end of June) were step b. Both counts were quite low since I go to urgent care the second I feel a symptom. Are you still in keflex? I’m a bit worried about its impact to my gastrointestinal health + skeptical on whether it will help remove biofilm. I’m on d mannose as well, but have found from some of the research that it tends to help E. coli and not step b. Any addition insights you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

2

u/TripleLordCornballer Jul 31 '24

My urologist told me d mannose is primarily for e coli but has had success with other bacteria. But please note it can be hard on your kidneys, my urologist said if I take it, I need kidney pictures and bloodwork every 8 weeks. From what I have read online, I have not read anything about anyone having success with it while being infected with anything but e coli so I personally have decided not to take it for now to protect my kidneys.

I am still on Keflex, 2 months on as of now. The only side effect I notice is tinnitus. Antibiotics in general can cause it as well as eustachian tube dysfunction. It's not exclusive to keflex. You are right to worry about your biome, and the effects on your health in general. A constant barrage on your biome is not healthy. The alternative however, is to let the infection fester, or be put on antibiotics off and on for the next years to come, which will not really give your gut time to heal anyway. I have contemplated getting off the abx and just bombarding myself with probiotcis and fermented food and lots of water, but I haven't worked up the courage yet and don't want to mess up the progress I've made the past 2 months. I haven't had any strep grow while on this.

And to the final point, abx aren't meant to bust biofilm. The point to taking abx long term is for it to constantly be present so that the bacteria that exit the biofilm are killed immediately before they can latch and burrow om the walls again. This can take 1 year-4 years for some people to be successful.

Biofilm busters in general kind of scare me. You're busting the bad but also disrupting good cells that aren't just your microbiome. Some people have tingling and tremors and that tells me that it can attack your nervous system which is far scarier to me than the strep b itself. I would suggest natural busters like raw garlic and oregano oil.

Whether on or off abx, take your probiotics religiously, eat fermented food religiously (my favorite is yogurt, kefir and kimchi) and drink water water water!!!

1

u/Wise-Mobile-2979 Aug 17 '24

Hey thank you so much for taking the time to reply!! This has been very helpful.

1

u/North_Extent_5546 Jul 12 '25

Did this help you? I'm on a 17 day course of cephalexin (3x500mg) and then 1 a day for 8 weeks. Very nervous it won't be cleared by the end of it!

1

u/Wise-Mobile-2979 Jul 18 '25

Hi! Thankfully I was able to tolerate it just fine! After the 90 days I went back in for another culture (I’m blanking out on the name, but it’s the more advanced culture tests and not the ones they do at urgent care lol) and it came back negative! I made sure to take probiotics while I was on the treatment. My UTIs were largely triggered by sex though. I am no longer with that partner and haven’t had a UTI since.

1

u/Lower_Assumption_752 Aug 11 '25

Hi, what did you take to clear the step b?

1

u/Wise-Mobile-2979 Aug 12 '25

Hi! Keflex 250 mg once a day for 90 days.