Probiotics Can Do a Lot For Your Health, but Preventing UTIs Might Not Be One of Them 0 Shares The short answer: pause before you stock up on all the yogurt and supplements. Ricardo Soares, MD, a urologist at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, said there's a lack of evidence that confirms probiotics are helpful in UTI prevention. "There has been some research on the use of probiotics in recurrent UTI in men, children, but particularly in women," he explained. "Results are underwhelming, with most studies showing no significant difference between probiotics and placebo in reducing frequency of symptomatic bacterial UTI." To understand the theory of using probiotics to prevent UTIs, it helps to know how UTIs form. According to Dr. Soares, Escherichia coli (E.coli), which originates in the gut, is the most common bacteria-causing UTI. "These bacteria travel from the anal area into the vagina and then into the urethra and bladder to cause urinary infection."