Chronic UTIs made MP feel like a drug user
Living with searing pain
Labour MP Dr Allison Gardner has lived with chronic urinary tract infections for about a decade, and the experience has left her feeling sidelined and misunderstood. The 60-year-old describes the pain as “searing” and says it’s like hot needles being inserted inside you, with burning that never stops. But the lack of a medical definition for chronic UTI meant doctors didn’t always take her seriously, and she was limited in the length of antibiotic courses they could prescribe.
Gardner felt gaslighted by medics. One told her to wipe herself better, another suggested she give up sex because it can cause flare-ups. “You’ve got to fight all the time just to get treated sensibly and [not told] you’ve got anxiety, depression or are attention seeking,” she said. The pain and lack of answers led her to a dark place, and she even considered selling her house to pay for private surgery to remove her bladder.
Finding relief and pushing for change
About three years ago, Gardner found Dr Cat Anderson, a GP in Staffordshire who specialises in challenging UTI cases. Anderson identified that Gardner’s symptoms were related to menopause and prescribed HRT. “I had two years free of UTI – I just had my life back,” Gardner said. She went private for this care, and when asked if that went against Labour principles, she replied: “You’re stuck with a choice aren’t you?”
Now Gardner is co-chairing an all-party parliamentary group with Liberal Democrat MP Luke Taylor, backed by the Chronic Urinary Tract Campaign. The group says more than 1.6 million women in the UK suffer chronic lower urinary tract symptoms, and it wants all GPs trained on chronic UTIs and a “passport” for patients to avoid repeatedly explaining their medical history. Anderson is leading a panel of experts to develop an official medical definition of chronic UTI by 2027, which would then be presented to NICE. Anderson has seen people “who are quite literally driven to suicide” because of the awful symptoms. The APPG is lobbying the government to invest in research and improve care, after the women’s health strategy didn’t mention UTIs.
