Have you ever had the misfortune of experiencing a UTI? Like a knife inside my bladder, Chronic UTIs left me in a mess of pain, needing hot water bottles, and hours-long bathroom trips for three years. When I got my first UTI only a week after my 18th birthday, I would never have believed you if you’d told me that 1095 days later I would still be suffering from the searing agony.
It took me exactly two and a half years before I was finally referred to a specialist. Across these years, like so many others, I was dismissed and doubted. I was passed from GP to GP and fed hundreds of antibiotics as easily as pick ‘n’ mix sweets (‘which do you fancy this time: Trimethoprim or Nitrofurantoin?’).
I found myself questioning how I could continue like this forever, anxious to even leave the house at the risk of being struck down with debilitating pain.
That was, until I was introduced to Hiprex.
Speaking to a Pharmacist, Ezequiel Vigo, I ask about the use of Hiprex in fighting chronic UTIs. Mr. Vigo tells me how ‘antibiotic resistance makes future infections more difficult to treat’. He explains that Hiprex, an antiseptic, ‘has an antibacterial effect’, which helps prevent growths in the urinary tract.
After taking Hiprex twice daily, my symptoms began to clear up within a matter of weeks. I have never experienced how it feels to win the lottery, but I would imagine the feeling of getting relief from three-years of agony came pretty close.
Yet when I moved back from Cambridge at the end of my degree, and re-registered with my local GP in the West Midlands, they told me I could no longer access my repeat medication. My new surgery explained that if I wanted Hiprex, I would have to go through a specialist in Worcestershire, despite having already been prescribed it in Cambridge.
‘But have you tried Cranberry juice?’ said the voice down the phone, after I begged my new surgery for my daily medication.
Many others like me struggle to access Hiprex on the NHS. Regional restrictions prevent some GPs from prescribing it without a referral, which can take months, and several pharmacies do not carry it. It was not until I moved to London that I was finally able to request it on repeat prescription once again.
Chronic UTIs were raised in parliament in October 2026, with Labour MP Dr Allsion Gardner describing the ‘searing pain’ and stating how at one point she thought, ‘If this is how my life is going to be, I can’t carry on’. Discussions were held over the lack of an official medical definition for them. But regional discrepancies in Hiprex accessibility remain largely unaddressed.
For me, Hiprex was lifesaving. At one point during my three years of pain, I was prescribed six different courses of antibiotics in a single month. None were successful. Especially as a student, being forced to spend hundreds of pounds on ineffective medication was nothing short of horrifying.
Whilst I occasionally still have flares, two little tablets a day have given me my life back.
But for so many others in the same position, Hiprex remains inaccessible.
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Standfirst
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HeadlineI don’t know what it feels like to win the lottery, but this comes pretty close
Short HeadlineIt was like winning the lottery
StandfirstOne London student's battle to access medication for Chronic UTIs
Have you ever had the misfortune of experiencing a UTI? Like a knife inside my bladder, Chronic UTIs left me in a mess of pain, needing hot water bottles, and hours-long bathroom trips for three years. When I got my first UTI only a week after my 18th birthday, I would never have believed you if you’d told me that 1095 days later I would still be suffering from the searing agony.
It took me exactly two and a half years before I was finally referred to a specialist. Across these years, like so many others, I was dismissed and doubted. I was passed from GP to GP and fed hundreds of antibiotics as easily as pick ‘n’ mix sweets (‘which do you fancy this time: Trimethoprim or Nitrofurantoin?’).
I found myself questioning how I could continue like this forever, anxious to even leave the house at the risk of being struck down with debilitating pain.
That was, until I was introduced to Hiprex.
Speaking to a Pharmacist, Ezequiel Vigo, I ask about the use of Hiprex in fighting chronic UTIs. Mr. Vigo tells me how ‘antibiotic resistance makes future infections more difficult to treat’. He explains that Hiprex, an antiseptic, ‘has an antibacterial effect’, which helps prevent growths in the urinary tract.
After taking Hiprex twice daily, my symptoms began to clear up within a matter of weeks. I have never experienced how it feels to win the lottery, but I would imagine the feeling of getting relief from three-years of agony came pretty close.
Yet when I moved back from Cambridge at the end of my degree, and re-registered with my local GP in the West Midlands, they told me I could no longer access my repeat medication. My new surgery explained that if I wanted Hiprex, I would have to go through a specialist in Worcestershire, despite having already been prescribed it in Cambridge.
‘But have you tried Cranberry juice?’ said the voice down the phone, after I begged my new surgery for my daily medication.
Many others like me struggle to access Hiprex on the NHS. Regional restrictions prevent some GPs from prescribing it without a referral, which can take months, and several pharmacies do not carry it. It was not until I moved to London that I was finally able to request it on repeat prescription once again.
Chronic UTIs were raised in parliament in October 2026, with Labour MP Dr Allsion Gardner describing the ‘searing pain’ and stating how at one point she thought, ‘If this is how my life is going to be, I can’t carry on’. Discussions were held over the lack of an official medical definition for them. But regional discrepancies in Hiprex accessibility remain largely unaddressed.
For me, Hiprex was lifesaving. At one point during my three years of pain, I was prescribed six different courses of antibiotics in a single month. None were successful. Especially as a student, being forced to spend hundreds of pounds on ineffective medication was nothing short of horrifying.
Whilst I occasionally still have flares, two little tablets a day have given me my life back.
But for so many others in the same position, Hiprex remains inaccessible.
