Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you either currently have a urinary tract infection and you want to get rid of it, or you’ve had one in the past and you want to find ways to avoid another one in the future.

Either way, you've come to the right place and we can offer some information to help.

First and foremost, it’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms of a UTI. If things don’t really seem right down there right now, your hunch is probably right.

Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection

• A strong urge to urinate
• Despite frequently feeling like you really need to go, only being able to urinate in small amounts
• A burning sensation when you urinate
• Your urine appears cloudy
• Blood in your urine
• Fowl scented urine
• Pelvic pain

If you are currently experiencing any of the above symptoms, you should contact your gynecologist so that he/she can see you immediately and treat you, if needed.

While men can get a UTI, they are most common in women. UTI’s occur when bacteria enters your urinary tract through the urethra and begin to multiply in the bladder.

Types of Urinary Tract Infections

Cystitis: This type of UTI is an infection of the bladder. It’s caused by E. coli. You can get Cystitis if you are sexually active. However, even non-sexually active women can get this type of UTI due to our anatomy. (The distance is rather short from the urethra to the anus and from the urethral opening to the bladder, for instance.)

Urethritis: This is an infection of the urethra and happens when GI bacteria spreads from the anus to the urethra (for example, if you wipe back to front.) STD’s also cause urethritis.

How to Prevent a Urinary Tract Infection

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Stay cool and comfortable all Summer long with these Summer finds under $30.

As a well-known holiday song goes “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” But is it really? If you Google ‘Holiday and Depression’, you will find a substantial number of articles dedicated to the topic.

Even on social media you’ll find discussions about stress and anxiety during the holidays to be quite pervasive. Generally, the holidays are associated with an increase in demands, in financial expenditures, family obligations and just not being able to manage expectations- Yours and others’. Hence, the onset of depression can easily occur.

But how do you know if you’re “holiday” depressed? If you find yourself dramatically overeating, excessively drinking, having insomnia or experiencing headaches, these are some of the signs that you might be suffering from stress and anxiety.

Here we provide some simple tips on how to alleviate or avoid depression altogether this holiday season.

Plan Ahead

Studies have repeatedly proven that happiness is directly related to stress. The less stress you have in your life, the happier you will be. A little bit of planning can remove a large part of the stress in your life, if not eliminate it completely. Here are some tips on how to plan for happiness:

• Set specific days for spending time with family and friends, for shopping, and other activities.
• Plan your cooking menus and then make a shopping list. That'll prevent last-minute scrambling to buy ingredients.
• Create shopping lists for holiday presents to eliminate not knowing what to get each person

Take Time For You

Even if it’s just 10 minutes out of the day,...

Period shaming has been around for about as long as periods have. That’s to say, forever. It’s only been in recent years that women have decided enough is enough and fought back against the menstruation stigma.

Still, there are so many ways in which each of us is shamed for bleeding every month and it can be a challenge to know what to do about it. While those of us in developed countries like the United States and Canada are not using bits of old mattresses to control our flow or dropping out of school because we don’t have access to restrooms, we’re still faced with being told that our periods are dirty and shameful, having our emotions invalidated because we’re bleeding, and resorting to covert, FBI-like operations to get into the bathroom to change our tampons.

In order to end the taboo and shut down period shaming, we all have to take action - and take it now. Here are 5 ways you can put an end to period shaming.

Talk about your period openly

Having honest conversations about menstruating is one of the fastest ways to dismantle the societal stigma placed on it. By opening up a dialogue about our bodies, how we feel during our periods, and challenges faced, we’re able to create a sense of solidarity among people with periods.

You may think that what you go through on your period is unique to you but, if you open yourself up to having conversations about it - with friends, your family, and your doctor - you’ll likely find that you’re not the only one.

Have period...