An At-Home UTI Test Should Never Replace a Visit to Your Doctor Here s Why
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When you think you may have a UTI, 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.
The short answer? An at-home UTI test should never replace an actual doctor s appointment.
According to Wai Lee, MD, the director of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at the Northwell Smith Institute for Urology, at-home UTI tests function similarly to urine dip-stick test strips, which are designed to flag specific markers that can suggest you have a UTI, such as nitrite (a chemical produced by some bacteria that cause UTIs) and leukocytes (white blood cells that fight off infection).