Can You get a UTI from a Hot Tub? Yes!
If you're wondering if a hot tub can cause a UTI, the answer is yes! One of my pelvic doctors told me a true story from one of her friends. So this friend, whom I'll name "Mary", is in a professional sports competition. She and her team travelled to compete at an event. They all were staying at a hotel, and there was a jacuzzi there. The girls all decided to go into the hot tub except for Mary, because she didn't feel like it. Anyway, all the girls got a urinary tract infection afterwards. Mary was the only one who didn't get the infection, and that's how they all pinpointed the hot tub as the culprit.
I don't know all the details or what kind of an infection it was, but when I get more details from my doctor, I will post it on here. I wanted to know what the type of infection it was, but all I know is that everyone had to get antibiotics for the same urinary tract infection at the same time! Except for Mary, and she was so relieved she didn't go for the hot tub.
Also, another patient I talked to from an Interstitial Cystitis & Chronic UTI Facebook group -- she recovered from her Interstitial Cystitis (which was also found out to be a long-term embedded urinary tract infection, by the way). However, she got a UTI a few years later, after going into a hot tub. Luckily, her UTI was resolved with a week of antibiotics.
One of my friend's friends went swimming in the ocean. She ended up with an itchy feeling on her labia (vaginal lips) for 10 days. She didn't get a UTI, but somehow, the ocean water (or the contaminants from it - eg wastes from birds, fish, or pollution irritated the outer part of her vagina).
So I decided to search the internet on how a hot tub or jacuzzi can give urinary tract infections and here are a few articles that I found:
What's Living in Your Hot Tub: skin infections and fecal contamination - without proper disinfection of that hot tub, germs could multiply and ruin your summer overnight
5 Weird Ways Hot Tubs Can Make You Sick - The culprit in hot tubs is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause UTIs. It's possible that water jets could have propelled this organism into the patients' urethras, the researchers said.
7 Gross Things That Can Happen When You Go In A Hot Tub - It's pretty nasty, but when people get into a hot tub, so does their leftover fecal matter. The average bather has about a tenth of a gram of feces that remains in their butt cracks.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Acute Prostatitis and Urosepsis after Sexual Relations in a Hot Tub - This guy had sex with his wife in their newly purchased hot tub, and ended up with prostatitis and urosepsis (a severe infection from a complicated UTI).
A Risky Soaking: Study Shows Whirlpool Water Can Be Dangerous - 43 whirlpool bathtubs were tested -- both private and public ones -- all 43 had bacterial growth ranging from mild to red-level dangerous. A whopping 95% showed the presence of fecal derived bacteria, while 81% had fungi and 34% contained staphylococcus, which can cause deadly staph infections.
Whirlpool-associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa urinary tract infections - 3 healthy outpatients had urinary tract infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa within 48 hours after using a whirpool hot tub.