Question: I am being treated for a UTI. On day 7 of 500 mg 2x a day Cipro, and have 3 days to go. I know it is an E.Coli as I happen to work in a lab with people who are professional medical techs and we have the resources to culture, ID and test sensitivity. I am concerned because i plated a urine sample yesterday and the growth of E.coli was still pretty decent after 6 days of Cipro, although knocked down to maybe 1/5 of the original amount of growth...we used a quantitative method of streaking. We are testing sensitivity now as best we can, as it's an animal lab and we don't have all the human antibiotics availalble, but do have Cipro-like drugs to test. I should also mention i had a rather intense (symptom--wise) UTI about a month previously, and got rid of it with 7 days of Cipro. We checked, urine was clean. This one has low grade symptoms but I didn't start treating it until I had it a week, hoping it would go away on it's own.
I have also tried taking Macrobid for this first UTI, and it worked great, but the drug made me sick as a dog and unable to work. I still have 4 days of that drug.

All these UTIs are related to sexual activity with a new, vigorous and frequent sexual partner. I hope and doubt that none of these things (except the UTIs!) are going to change anytime soon!
Oh, I am also wondering if these UTIs might be encouraged by the use of pellet-form of spermicidal birth control. They do liquify and get all over the place, perhaps altering the membranes of the urinary tract?? Online reviewers of this product seem to think they get more UTIs using the pellet.

Any advice???

thank you that is a thorough response. I did not know the spermicide was actually known to help cause the UTIs. Hope fully I can avoid long term antibiotics but also an option I didn't know about. I worry about yeast infections, I get those easily all on my own, so I want to avoid much antibiotics. I will do what I need to though, and start with the juice and finish the Cipro and re-check. Perhaps going on the Pill again is a good idea for me. I doubt barrier/condoms will interest us at all. He is tested safe and we are in exclusive relationship.