What Doctors Don't Tell YouSome cases of urinary tract infection (UDI) in women may be caused by the spermicide on their partner’s condoms, researchers have suggested.
Spermicide coated condoms were responsible for 42 per cent of the UTIs among women exposed to the products, they conclude.
The culprit seems to be the spermicide nonoxynol-9, which brings on the UDI called Escherichia coli.
The researchers compared rates of infection among two groups of women 604 who had had at least one acute E coli infection during the month before the study, and 629 controls.
The risk of developing a UTI among women exposed to coated condoms more than once a week was three times higher than among women whose partners did not use a condom.
!AAm J Epidemiol, 1996; 144: 512-20.
Maryon Stewart
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD