A growing number of UTIs are resistant to antibiotics. Experts say it's the 'canary in the coal mine' for a bigger problem.

Mo Carrier has dealt with recurrent urinary tract infections, defined as having three or more UTIs per year or two infections within six months, since her early 20s. “I ended up being put on antibiotics to be used before every sexual act,” she tells Yahoo Life. Carrier eventually switched doctors and says her access to antibiotics changed. Among other things, her new doctor was concerned about antibiotic resistance, which happens when the bacteria no longer responds to certain antibiotics.

“I’d used [antibiotics] probably three times a week for about a year at that point,” she says. Carrier says she was “terrified” that the antibiotics would one day stop working for her. “UTIs were one of the worst things I’ve been through,” she adds.

Liz S. also struggles with recurrent UTIs, but has another challenge: She’s allergic to sulfa-based antibiotics, which limits the type of medication she can take. Liz tells Yahoo Life that antibiotic resistance is “definitely a concern, given that I can't take one of the three standard medications.”

In March 2025, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new medication — gepotidacin, sold under the brand name Blujepa — to treat UTIs, making it the first new antibiotic class in nearly 30 years. That’s good news for the more than 50% of women who will have at least one UTI in their lifetime, along with the 30-44% of women whose UTI will inevitably return in a matter of months. (Drugs Pivya and Orlynvah were approved in 2024 to treat UTIs, but they fit into existing antibiotic classes; Blujepa is a triazaacenaphthylene antibiotic and is the first of its kind.)

Why all the new medications? Recurrent UTIs have become a growing problem due to antibiotic resistance, meaning some of the drugs that were once used to treat them are no longer effective. Research suggests that 92% of bacteria that cause UTIs are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and nearly 80% are resistant to at least two antibiotics — and that’s raising some red flags.

But the problem with antibiotic resistance is bigger than just UTIs. The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled antibiotic resistance as one of the three greatest threats to global health. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says it’s a serious threat, while research calls antibiotic resistance a “global health emergency.”

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem

“Antibiotic-resistant UTIs are the canary in the coal mine for broader antibiotic resistance,” Dr. Robert Bonomo, antibiotic resistance researcher and professor in the Department of Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. Bonomo says that doctors will often prescribe many antibiotics over time to treat these recurrent infections, raising the risk that bacteria will adapt and eventually thwart the medication’s effects.

“Since UTIs often require multiple rounds of antibiotics, they can drive resistance further, making it more likely that other infections — like pneumonia or bloodstream infections — will also become harder to treat,” Daniel Park, senior research scientist at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, tells Yahoo Life.

Antibiotic resistance can lead to potentially untreatable infections, Dr. Milner Staub, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life, which can be fatal. Predictive models estimate that more than 39 million people globally could die from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years, according to a 2024 study published in The Lancet.

“Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to human health,” Dr. Kelly Dooley, director of the Division of Infectious Disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life. “We know that antimicrobially resistant (AMR) pathogens will kill more people than cancer by 2050.”

AMR impacts all areas of medicine, including oncology, surgery and transplants, Dooley says. Adding to the urgency: Doctors are running out of effective antibiotics to treat serious infections, Dr. Martin J. Blaser, director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University, tells Yahoo Life.

The problem has extended to other infections beyond UTIs, including antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. “We have taken for granted that effective antibiotics will be there when needed, as they have been for the past 80 years,” Blaser says. “But resistance is increasing faster than we can develop new antibiotics.”

What can people do on a personal level?

Although antibiotic resistance is concerning, there are steps people can take to reduce the risk:

• Talk to your doctor about whether an antibiotic is needed. “With mild infections, as most infections are, waiting a while will often show that the infection goes away on its own, so the antibiotic is not even needed,” says Blaser. However, it’s important to talk to your doctor about this since some infections won’t clear up without the right course of antibiotics.

• Take antibiotics only when prescribed. It’s important to wait for culture results to make sure that you’re given the right antibiotic for your particular infection, Blaser says.

• Finish the entire course of antibiotics. Park says it’s important to complete the full course of antibiotics you’re prescribed, even if you start to feel better before then. “This prevents surviving bacteria from developing resistance,” he says.

• Try to purchase meat, poultry and dairy products raised without antibiotics when possible. “This helps reduce overuse of antibiotics in agriculture, which reduces antimicrobial resistance, especially in zoonotic infections where the bacteria spreads from animals to humans,” Park says.

While Bonomo says several new antibiotics are being researched, he also stresses the importance of doctors and patients working together to fight antibiotic resistance. “We can cut down on the use of antibiotics by a lot and by not prescribing them for things like the common cold,” he says. “I understand that sometimes pressures in the [doctor's] office are very high — people don’t ... a prescription to take Tylenol and orange juice — but we need to do better.”