Can drinking too much water throw off a UTI test?

Ugh, UTI tests. Nobody likes those, right? So, I was wondering the other day – because, you know, sometimes I get a little too enthusiastic about drinking water, especially in the summer – can chugging down too much water mess with the results? Apparently, yeah, it totally can.

I read somewhere – I think it was a health blog, or maybe a random article I stumbled across, honestly I can’t quite remember now – that drinking tons of water before a test can give you a false negative. Makes sense, really. Think about it: your urine gets all diluted. It’s like trying to find a needle in an ocean, except the needle is bacteria, and the ocean is… well, you get it. The things they look for – leukocytes, nitrites, all that medical mumbo-jumbo – they’re just less concentrated, harder to spot.

I remember my aunt, bless her heart, she once went through this. She was convinced she had a UTI, felt awful, the works. But her test came back negative. Turned out, she’d been pounding water all morning because she felt dehydrated. It took another test, after she’d cut back on the water, to get a clear result – and she did have a UTI. So yeah, lesson learned.

So, the moral of the story? Stay hydrated, definitely. But maybe lay off the giant water bottle right before you have to give a sample. Otherwise, you might end up back at the doctor’s office, frustrated and still feeling yucky. Just a little heads-up from someone who’s been there, kinda.