Bacteria in female bladders.

Bacteria in female bladders.A new study has found that the female bladder not only contains bacteria, but the microbes are similar to those found in the vagina. The finding could lead to improved diagnostic tests and treatments for urinary tract infections and other urinary tract disorders. Scientists and physicians at Loyola University Chicago and Loyola Medicine were the first to publish groundbreaking research that debunked the common belief that urine in healthy women is sterile. Expanding on this finding, a new study published in Nature Communications has found that the bladder not only contains bacteria, but the microbes are similar to those found in the vagina. The new finding could lead to improved diagnostic tests and treatments for urinary tract infections and other urinary tract disorders. Researchers sequenced the genes of 149 bacterial strains from 77 women. While the microbiota (community of microorganisms) found in the bladder and vagina were similar, they were markedly distinct from the microbiota found in the gastrointestinal tract.