To learn about our solution, read here background is below.
For any wanting more background on my symptoms and diagnosis of urethral spasms:
Nearly 15 years ago, not long after weaning my second child, I started finding myself in terrible pain every month with urinary tract infections. At least that's what it felt like--a feeling of urgency and painful cramping that pain killers wouldn't touch. I became a regular visitor to my primary care physician's office. Occasionally I would test fully positive for a urinary tract infection. More often, I would test positive for high white blood cell counts but negative for nitrates which would cause my physician to shake her head in confusion and sometimes give me antibiotics, sometimes not. Of course, going on antibiotics nearly every month also started leading to an endless merry-go-round of urinary tract infection, yeast infection, urinary tract, yeast infection and eventually a little bit of BV thrown in as well. And as so often seems to happen in the medical world, no matter how many times I came back to the doctor's office, the routine never changed. The doctor never seemed bothered by the repeated visits. She treated each one as a fresh occurrence independent of the others. Finally, after months and months of pain and frustration I came in armed with my list of how many times I'd been in, how many rounds of antibiotics I'd been on, etc. even though I knew all this information was in her charts and I demanded, " Why is this happening over and over?" and "Shouldn't we be trying to address the underlying cause?" Her answer was very illustrative of the limitations of our medical system. She explained that she wasn't trained to do that--to investigate and figure out medical mysteries. She said that primary care doctors are trained to treat symptoms and that's it. I was insistent that wasn't good enough and demanded she give me a referral to see a specialist. She wasn't too excited about doing so (thank you cost-saving insurance companies) but finally agreed.
In the mean time, I also went to my gynecologist's office for my annual well woman exam (more info about why this may be a waste) and to see if maybe there was something going on in that realm that was causing my discomfort. An earnest resident I talked to suggested that maybe I was dealing with Interstitial Cystitis and recommended I try eliminating various foods from my diet to see if that helped. As I researched IC, I didn't think it quite matched but it was closer anyway. And I greatly appreciated her at least trying to think outside the box. My actual gynecologist was less useful. She sent me in for a pelvic ultrasound, found nothing, and suggested they could try birth control pills or a hysterectomy and see if that helped. Umm, no thanks.
When I finally saw a urologist, he sent me in for a kidney x-ray and cystoscopy to eliminate possibilities. They were normal. He explained that I was having urethral spasms-- where the urethra thinks it is infected and acts accordingly. He said they had no idea why and no cure, but that it was fairly common in women my age. He gave me the helpful suggestion that if I got pregnant I might feel better during the pregnancy-- he'd noticed that was the case for at least one patient. Once again, no thank you. He put me on a couple medicines-- a low dose daily antibiotic and a muscle relaxant used to treat prostrate problems in men. Neither seemed to help much and I didn't like the side effects of the muscle relaxant (or the fact that it wasn't designed or tested for use with women) so I dropped that one but kept taking the antibiotic for a while. It didn't actually stop the symptoms, but it calmed my mind. When the pain would start, I wouldn't have to wonder and worry whether it was an actual infection that I needed to go get medicine for. Gradually I concluded that it was just as effective to only take it the days of the month I was feeling bad rather than every day. Eventually I moved and didn't bother finding a new urologist. I would just talk my primary care physician into low dose antibiotic prescriptions which I'd keep around for when I had flare ups.
And so it continued for the next decade plus. I learned that if I kept my stress down and got plenty of rest, I had fewer attacks. But they still would happen occasionally and I would just suffer through the pain. It wasn't until recently that we found something that worked. To learn about our solution, read on here.
For any wanting more background on my symptoms and diagnosis of urethral spasms:
Nearly 15 years ago, not long after weaning my second child, I started finding myself in terrible pain every month with urinary tract infections. At least that's what it felt like--a feeling of urgency and painful cramping that pain killers wouldn't touch. I became a regular visitor to my primary care physician's office. Occasionally I would test fully positive for a urinary tract infection. More often, I would test positive for high white blood cell counts but negative for nitrates which would cause my physician to shake her head in confusion and sometimes give me antibiotics, sometimes not. Of course, going on antibiotics nearly every month also started leading to an endless merry-go-round of urinary tract infection, yeast infection, urinary tract, yeast infection and eventually a little bit of BV thrown in as well. And as so often seems to happen in the medical world, no matter how many times I came back to the doctor's office, the routine never changed. The doctor never seemed bothered by the repeated visits. She treated each one as a fresh occurrence independent of the others. Finally, after months and months of pain and frustration I came in armed with my list of how many times I'd been in, how many rounds of antibiotics I'd been on, etc. even though I knew all this information was in her charts and I demanded, " Why is this happening over and over?" and "Shouldn't we be trying to address the underlying cause?" Her answer was very illustrative of the limitations of our medical system. She explained that she wasn't trained to do that--to investigate and figure out medical mysteries. She said that primary care doctors are trained to treat symptoms and that's it. I was insistent that wasn't good enough and demanded she give me a referral to see a specialist. She wasn't too excited about doing so (thank you cost-saving insurance companies) but finally agreed.
In the mean time, I also went to my gynecologist's office for my annual well woman exam (more info about why this may be a waste) and to see if maybe there was something going on in that realm that was causing my discomfort. An earnest resident I talked to suggested that maybe I was dealing with Interstitial Cystitis and recommended I try eliminating various foods from my diet to see if that helped. As I researched IC, I didn't think it quite matched but it was closer anyway. And I greatly appreciated her at least trying to think outside the box. My actual gynecologist was less useful. She sent me in for a pelvic ultrasound, found nothing, and suggested they could try birth control pills or a hysterectomy and see if that helped. Umm, no thanks.
When I finally saw a urologist, he sent me in for a kidney x-ray and cystoscopy to eliminate possibilities. They were normal. He explained that I was having urethral spasms-- where the urethra thinks it is infected and acts accordingly. He said they had no idea why and no cure, but that it was fairly common in women my age. He gave me the helpful suggestion that if I got pregnant I might feel better during the pregnancy-- he'd noticed that was the case for at least one patient. Once again, no thank you. He put me on a couple medicines-- a low dose daily antibiotic and a muscle relaxant used to treat prostrate problems in men. Neither seemed to help much and I didn't like the side effects of the muscle relaxant (or the fact that it wasn't designed or tested for use with women) so I dropped that one but kept taking the antibiotic for a while. It didn't actually stop the symptoms, but it calmed my mind. When the pain would start, I wouldn't have to wonder and worry whether it was an actual infection that I needed to go get medicine for. Gradually I concluded that it was just as effective to only take it the days of the month I was feeling bad rather than every day. Eventually I moved and didn't bother finding a new urologist. I would just talk my primary care physician into low dose antibiotic prescriptions which I'd keep around for when I had flare ups.
And so it continued for the next decade plus. I learned that if I kept my stress down and got plenty of rest, I had fewer attacks. But they still would happen occasionally and I would just suffer through the pain. It wasn't until recently that we found something that worked. To learn about our solution, read on here.
