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31

All things bladder related / Anyone ever had this type problem?

« Last post by Annika on November 18, 2010, 07:53:25 PM »

Hi,   I am almost 54 years old and have been suffering from bladder problems since last year when I began to experience painful bladder urges, back pain, blood in urine the whole nine yards. But upon taking the urine test at the doctors it comes back negative  for infection although blood is usually found in my urine. Now this past week the same thing happened and this time the doctor sent a culture out and that came back negative. However when he gives me the antibiotics it clears up fine. I have been to the Urologist and he found nothing in my bladder so I am puzzled. Can you still have an infection and it not show up on the urine test?   Annika xx

32

All things bladder related / Pelvic Floor Exercises

« Last post by Mrs Mac on November 02, 2010, 09:22:21 PM »

Hi everyone

I suffer from stress incontinence!!!!  There I have finally admitted it to someone other than my doctor   

I am 54 and have had this problem for a few years now.  I am taking Duluxatine tablets which worked at first but I am afraid to stop them in case things get worse.  At the moment I have to wear pads pretty much every day.  Some days I don't get any leakage, other days quite a lot.  I went to a physio who told me the only way to cure it was to do pelvic floor exercises, which I have started doing but I have trouble doing them - I can only do them when I am lying down, which seems a bit weird I admit, but when I try to do them when I am photocopying at work (seems like a good way to pass the time!!!) I can't feel anything happening.  I am starting to get a bit down about it now, I feel like everyone can smell me (even though I shower twice a day) and even with my husband I feel embarrassed about it, and from reading the posts on the menopause matters website it seems the only way from here is downhill.........

 

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All things bladder related / Re: Effects of prolapses

« Last post by donjackw on October 24, 2010, 01:49:54 PM »

I love the menopause matters forums but the posts on prolapse are few so for the time being you might visit a site called www.prolapsehealth.com and get lots of helpful information.  I will start posting on this site at some point but am pretty overwhelmed by helping moderate the site I mentioned.  Perhaps you could visit there and bring back some info to this site and we could get this site moving.   Not sure if this is ok, but the most important thing is you get help and support and there is tons of it on the mentioned site. 

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All things bladder related / Effects of prolapses

« Last post by bladderwracked on October 14, 2010, 11:32:00 AM »

I read all the posts that were on the boards and was evangelised enough to stick my head above the parapet. I discovered I had a rectocele (rectal prolapse) and eventually after a few pointless hoops got to see a physio who told me I also have a cytocele (bladder prolapse). Between them, the menopause (10 months no period and counting), and the usual failure to do pelvic floor exercises enough after childbirth all those years ago, my increasing tendency to both stress and urge incontinence which I'd successfully refused to look at for several years was explained.

I am doing the exercises, but no great improvement yet, and have a general feeling of going downhill fast and nothing is going to fix it. Which is making me feel pretty miserable! The physio muttered something about a pessary which I might be able to get to counter the effects of menopause on the pelvic floor area. Does anyone know if this is the same as HRT? or if it is likely to work. I am quite clear I don't want HRT. But I would like very much to a.sleep, b. be able to bend, run, cough, dance, sneeze, go out etc without anxiety, c. feel like a human being again whose insides are likely to stay put. with a hope of being well.

Does it ever end? Is there anyone out there who has attained postmenopause and is enjoying life?

35

All things bladder related / Re: Bladder Infections & Anxiety

« Last post by amandah on September 19, 2010, 09:30:55 PM »

Hi Thanks for your reply. I am wearing a lady care magnet but I am very doutful as to whether this is going to work for me.  I am also wondering about taking femerelle at the same time as well as wearing the lady care. If any one can advise me I would be very grateful. I dont want HRT. regard amandah

36

All things bladder related / Re: Bladder Infections & Anxiety

« Last post by amandah on August 27, 2010, 04:08:30 PM »

Thank-you for your reply. I will look into this. As all these GPs want to do is dish out yet more Antibiotics all the time. Regards Amandah

37

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« Last post by Laura on August 26, 2010, 02:56:05 PM »

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38

All things bladder related / Re: COMPLEXITIES OF MANAGEMENT

« Last post by Gagamama on August 19, 2010, 05:06:34 PM »

Well Wensley, (you can tell I have gotten to an age where one's mind goes gaga - where do you think I got my moniker from? - as I have been busily typing you as newbie...never mind, I'm sure you know what I meant!)

I am delighted if I have been even the tiniest source of encouragement.
Here is what I think of "experts" (with apologies to the experts who started this excellent bladder matters website! thank you!) - there are those who have personal experience of one's condition and there are those who can merely empathise because of having studied the condition. The latter can only go on the data available and for incontinence of the types of which we are now beginning to speak, I suspect that historical data is thin on the ground. After all we can all relate to the embarrassment about speaking out so doubtless thousands of women (especially childbearing ones who possibly make up the majority in our category) suffered in silence in past times.
From my own experience I can relate to the "professional advice" in an adaptive manner. I ask myself how relevant does it feel that the expectations offered are particular to my condition. I may have said before but to give you an example of what I mean: my gynaecologist thought that his internal investigations, the results of the urological torture tests (sorry they are dreadfully unpleasant and I wish I had had a better idea of what to expect because then i might have managed to be a bit less hysterical and a bit more stoical) and the book-knowledge he had  indicated that I had both urge and stress incontinence.
The more I read, the more I spoke to other sufferers and, in particular, having come across a delightfully upfront booklet on incontinence written by a specialist nurse from Australia (where they tend to call spades spades), the more I decided that urge incontinence is far more often an emotional problem than a physical one. Whoa! Before all you urgers out there descend on me for trivialising your problems - hear me out....
If for whatever reason (and they could be physical ones) , the bladder's sphincter muscles (or whatever other mechanisms, nerves or whatever...my physiology knowledge isn't all that deep) LEARN to respond to the very first hints of impending fullness and we all rush to the loo, then next time, like a toddler who has just discovered how to manipulate mummy and daddy, those same indicators will send a message to the brain to say "hey come on, if you don't let me empty I'll pee all over the floor!"  Thus starts a sort of cycle of strictly speaking "inappropriate" responses from the brain.
It's telling that urgers may have to release the instant they get indoors (whether their bladder is actually full or not) because home is where we can mostly put away our anxieties.  And we also spend a lot pof anxious time checking out the nearest loos when we are out.
Now, since I have solved my definitely physical problem of stress incontinence (ie. overstretched muscles which don't manage to support my brain's signals to hold on) by having everything hoisted up more tightly with the tape, I have lost all the ANXIETY and my supposed urge incontinence has vanished!
Hence being able to have hugely longer periods between bladder emptying. My "bladder retraining"- which pre-op' was slow and in tiny increments (and that aforementioned Australian continence nurse had said sometimes it takes months or even years of efforts to overcome)  - has sort of fallen into place overnight. That is without the anxiety my brain simply ignores any signals until my bladder has become pretty nearly full (much nearer to 500ml than the less than 200ml I had managed each time before).  Even if the urge problem hadn't vanished (or so I reasoned) I could be calmer about facing the need  to retrain myself.
So what am I saying here?
Well I'm not sure how much help it is to people who ONLY have urge incontinence except that the Aussie nurse seemed certain that retraining one's brain/bladder co-ordination IS possible, but for those of you out there who have evidence of flabby bits leading to leakage under stress, I'd say go ahead and get the latter sorted and then worry about the other bit when you see how improved you are.
Sorry this is a long post but I noticed that there have been several hundred of people reading this who are "guests" so I suspect there are a lot of women out there who don't even want to expose themselves to other sufferers.  I think I'm turning into a bit of a continence evangelist!

39

All things bladder related / Re: Bladder Infections & Anxiety

« Last post by Glades on August 18, 2010, 04:38:14 PM »

Hi Amandah
I'm 10 years older than you and obviously well post meno but after 9 years on HRT I cam off at 54 and at 60 started with bladder infections which on two occasions turned into kidney infections, all very nasty.   Anyway, long story short!    I found out last year that a big cause of this problem is to do with lack of oestrogen affecting the vaginal tissue and the bladder area and am now on Vagifem, a low oestrogen pessary delivered directly to the vagina.  Touch wood it's been great, might be worth investigating?    Think these type of infections make you feel very stressed and anxious, the are so debilitating.

My gp never mentioned that this is a common problem with the meno, btw, it was only through my own research that I found out!
Hope you feel better soon

40

All things bladder related / Bladder Infections & Anxiety

« Last post by amandah on August 14, 2010, 06:19:44 PM »

Hello, I am new here. I am going through the perimenopause. Not a Happy Bunny. I have no children, I am nearly 54 and have had a number of bladder infections.All my Gps keep doing is dish out antibiotics.I also take cranberry caps. As I dont like juice.I also drink plenty of water in the day.I am suffering from Anxiety. regards amandah