A Maidenhead business that helps naturally treat cystitis and UTIs was founded on the basis of helping women have dominion over their health, its founder says.

Maya Mendoza, 59, is the founder of PeeSting – an antibiotic-free and anti-inflammatory plant-based treatment for UTIs.

“I’ve had several infections over a number of years – with one prescription after another given to me in an attempt to treat it,” she said. “Every new partner I had would cause this.

“My personal experience with antibiotics is the very reason I founded the business. I went through hell with them, discovering certain antibiotics altered the way my immune system responds to infection.”

Maya, who was on prophylactic antibiotics for two years, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes due to antibiotics wearing down gut bacteria.

“This is not an uncommon diagnosis for women and makes our lives so difficult,” she added. “The antibiotics wore me down so much that I couldn’t do sports, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t hug or even be bumped into. Every night I was waking up once an hour to pee and every morning I would take a multitude of medication like breakfast.”

It wasn’t until she started to use D-Mannose that Maya found that the pain was going away and she was able to run for the first time in years. It was the discovery of using natural ingredients that led her to realise this issue wasn’t a personal one but an ongoing struggle many women face when it comes to their health.

“There is an overarching issue of women being kept silent because of some weird shame when it comes to peeing,” she said. “But we need to talk about it because the treatment is causing more problems than it’s solving. Any bacterial infection that doesn’t resolve properly after antibiotics puts your health at risk overall.

“When you’re in that much pain you’ll do anything to take the pain away – no matter what the doctors tell you. There’s been no adequate research for these antibiotics since they were discovered and there’s somewhat of a global crisis in antibiotic resistance.

“Women’s health issues are massively dismissed – and this includes UTIs. The widely accepted way to treat them is your doctor offering antibiotics – but around 25% to 35% of infections do not respond to any sort of antibiotics. UTIs are excruciating and disruptive to the point where women can’t function, I know that first-hand.”

Maya explains that the unresolved consequences of UTIs are harrowing for women and the system does not look at recurrent infection.

She said: “Historically, there’s been no option for relief, recovery and rejuvenation and we want women to have more choice of treatment and to understand that their health can be their own responsibility. My approach is always to ask mother nature first which is why PeeSting and its various treatments are created from plant-based ingredients. We’re offering a tried-and-tested, scientifically-scrutinised solution to women who’ve lost hope. I know because I almost lost mine – coming from a place of desperation to find a way through to the other side.

“We want women to have dominion over their health, lives and bodies.”