Has anybody ever had a UTI "go away" after taking cranberry pills?

Question

I had SEVERE pain from a UTI start on Saturday. I've had UTI's several times before, so I know how they feel. The only place that I can use my insurance wasn't open. Anyhow, I started taking a lot of cranberry pills and drinking a lot of water that night and also took some bladder pain pills I had been prescribed before. This morning, I went to the women's clinic at my health center (university) and they couldn't diagnose a UTI (although they're going to send it away for a culture). Has anybody ever had this happen? The people at the women's clinic said cranberry pills don't normally cure UTI's.

Answer 1

Cranberry extract has been shown to help prevent urinary tract infections in patients who get recurrent infections.  The mechanism is probably a combination of prevention of bacteria from sticking to bladder walls and alteration of urine chemical environment to limit the growth of bacteria.

Probably, the pain that you were feeling was related to some other process than a urinary tract infection.  Think inflammation, dehydration, or hormone imbalance.  If it went away on its own that quickly, it's probably not an infection and should not be treated with antibiotics even if the culture is positive.  (It would likely be a contaminant or a short-lived bacterial colonization.)