- Inflammation of the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder to outside the body.
- Pain with urination is the main symptom of urethritis.
- Commonly due to infection by bacteria and can typically be cured with antibiotics.
Causes
- Most episodes of urethritis are caused by infection by bacteria that enter the urethra from the skin around the urethra’s opening. Bacteria that commonly cause urethritis include:
- coli and other bacteria present in stool
- Gonococcus, which is sexually transmitted and causes gonorrhea.
- Chlamydia trachomatis, which is sexually transmitted and causes chlamydia.
- May also be caused by:
- Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2)
- Trichomonas, a sexually transmitted, single-celled organism
- Sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhea and chlamydia are usually confined to the urethra but may extend into women’s reproductive organs, causing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
- In men, gonorrhea and chlamydia sometimes cause epididymitis, an infection of the epididymis, a tube on the outside of the testes. Both PID and epididymitis can lead to infertility.
