this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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[–] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Older people (like 50s and above) often get acutely confused as the first symptom of a UTI. They'll go to work, come home, and then an hour later they're arguing with the clothing in their closet because they think it's a family member and talking to faces they see in the walls. If your older family member just out of the blue starts acting "crazy" with no history of psych problems, drug abuse, or dementia, it could be something serious like a stroke, but it's probably a UTI. UTIs also go septic super fast in older people so they definitely need treated sooner rather than later.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Id say more like 70s and above. Ppl aren’t all the same kind of old from 50 to 90. 40 yrs is a large span to be confusing all symptoms into all the same age group. And this ignores menopause (once again menopause gets ignored) which is its own bag of tricks which happens in the span as early as 45(and in some rare cases 30s) which can span all the way into mid 60s.

50 is a bit young to be confused with dementia or stroke unless there is something incredibly unusual (and I mean outlier level) going on. And they would typically still experience the UTI pain first before the confusion. Lots of women go onto use HRT just on the early symptoms alone.

There are differences in typical health prone changes the decades(including stages of peri, post, menopause and andropause).

like you wouldn’t be confusing a 5 yr old with a 20 yr old. And that is only a span of 15 yrs but there are distinct differences in puberty changes then too just as you wouldn’t confuse health problems a 70 old with someone at 55 with menopause symptoms.

you also wouldn’t confuse someone who might be unable to be mobile in their 90s getting UTI from an unchanged diaper or catheter with a 50 yr old getting a UTI from ph imbalance because of menopause.

[–] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

I mean, it's mostly the older range of the spectrum, but I've absolutely seen 50-something year olds become acutely confused suddenly and ultimately get diagnosed with a UTI.

Source: 8 years in EMS. I get called by panicked family members all the time.