Women tend to get them more often, men tend to suffer more. It's just a matter of physical construction. For women, the urethra is so short to the bladder that any UTI is pretty much guaranteed to become a bladder infection, not just limited to the urethra, and so that's the highlight they get, bladder infections. From there, the next step is the uriters and kidneys, which can be worse.
For men, there's 8-12" of urethra the UTI has to get through to make it to the bladder, and in most cases it doesn't manage that because 10" of inflamed urethra usually drives a man to the doctor for some antibiotics, and as you found out, that can be a large bag of hurt. That's a lot of distance to work through also, so men don't get bladder infections anywhere near as often. But the urethra's lining is quite sensitive, so it sure hurts.
I've personally experienced maybe 5 UTIs of various degrees throughout my life, none of which required a doctor visit. (though a few probably should have...) I generally found that I got some relief from peeing. (which was typically a burning pain, but there was a relief that followed and lasted up to an hour before the continuous pain returned) That often left me wishing I had more to pee between voids. Drinking more helped (cranbery juice is usually recommended, but it tears up my stomach) but in the end what I found helped the most was to NOT void completely. Just enough to grease the plumbing and then stop. Sure it meant more frequent burning from going, but it allowed me to be comfortable for the entire time between events, and seemed to speed healing.
And unless you want to make 20 trips to the bathroom overnight, a diaper is obviously required
I think keeping the urethra flushed of bacterial buildup as best you can is probably the best solution also, from a clinical point of view.
