To be fucking fed up of my bladder

[LostittoBostik]

On holiday, lying awake with an irritable bladder AGAIN. On the loo every half hour.

It's not a uti - I'm now such an expert I can mostly tell the difference. But something has bothered me again.

I'm so sick of this. I lost most of my 20s to UTIs and IC. Then things got much better after pregnancy and birth.

Now I'm in my 40s and presumably due to hormones it's back to square one.

It makes me actually hate being away from home.

Young kids will be up by 6am and I've had 1 hour of sleep so far. Fuck it all.

Are you prescribed this? I cant face yet a nother attempt to see a doctor

You can buy Gina which is estriol daily tablets (insert, don't swallow!!!) over the counter, they are about £30 for 24. The cream is prescription only, you can get it from online pharmacies by going through their questionnaire but it will cost about the same.

I've been under a Consultant Urologist for a year or so (now discharged) and he diagnosed a spasming bladder. He was fantastic and very reassuring, I'd never heard of this before. He prescribed Solifenicen tablets and they made a huge difference, stopping my bladder from spasming. Apart from the usual suspects like alcohol and caffeine he said it can also be triggered by the cold if you suffer from it. All very interesting. I can actually drink a cup of tea and not need a wee instantly. I've since changed tablets for other medical reasons and am probably on them for life, which my GP confirmed is quite common.
It did take nearly a year to get referred.

Definitely look into what you are drinking. Certain drinks are guaranteed to cause me problems. If I stick to water or one brand of tea I'm ok.

I was on this and it worked like charm, unfortunately if you have heart problems it can exacerbate them, so I am now on mirabegron.

I too was getting up every 30 minutes some nights, these are a game changer.

@PoopedAndScooped ah I was refused that in my 20s due to open scarring

Sadly these only work for e coli and none of my UTIs seemed to be caused by that bacteria. Also I'm at high risk of type 2 diabetes so worry about excess sugars

Wow that's depressing and yet also reassuring. I really thought I'd just got better!

Maybe menopause will bring relief if it's so hormonally controlled?

I have this so just placemarking to read later as loads of helpful ideas

Ps: thank you to the person who said antacids. I took an omeprazole which I had in the drawer and it definitely fixed it - for now.

Absolutely cut out caffeinated drinks, also fizzy (carbonated) drinks are a bladder irritant. But don't restrict your fluid intake as that will make you more prone to UTIs.

Is IC incontinence in this context?
Commiserations OP
I am peri and I have stress incontinence and have had since having dc1 16 years ago.

I went to the GP about the same thing.
I was prescribed vaginal oestrogen cream and diagnosed with three types of prolapse and have just had surgery for the worst one.

Don't let it get the stage mine was at 14yrs after giving birth to my last DC.

I have an overactive bladder which controlled my life for years. I've been taking oxybutinin fit as long time, and this transformed my life. I can actually hold on now.

Caffeine and alcohol are 2 big triggers, so definitely try quitting both.

If it’s lack of hormones affecting your bladder estriol cream will be of great benefit.

So two things on D-Mannose... it isn't metabolised by your body, which is partly why so much is dumped into your bladder and bowel - so it shouldn't affect type 2 diabetes, or be any calories if you're worried about gaining weight, but do check with your doctor if you're worried.

Also I never found any UTIs, e-coli infection etc and it cured me - so I wouldn't rule it out just because you don't have e-coli infections.

All that is to say, you don't have to try it - but I'm quite passionate about it because I had severe IC, my bladder pain was agony and I could barely work. And after D-Mannose I genuinely never think about my bladder - if it starts to hurt again, I just take a little and it stops. So I always want people to tell anyone else suffering in case it helps them too