Ureaplasma - uk gp won't treat?

[Sandylands]

So I did a swab for ureaplasma as we have been struggling to conceive and I've been dealing with frequent cystitis and bv and it's come back positive for Ureaplasma, I took my results to my gp who had to Google it and said I didn't need treatment, i mentioned the frequent bv and cystitis and the inability to conceive and she said maybe 1 week of doxy would help but wouldn't advise treating my husband, surely we would pass it back and forth?!
I've had PID twice in the past but no known cause so wondering if this was infact the culprit all along!

Wondering if anyone else had dealt with this and what they treated with?

Hey,
I am in a similar position to you, have been suffering with irritation on and off for years, have been seeing a nutritional therapist who got me to do a microbiome test which showed I have ureaplasma. My partner and I are about to start trying to conceive and it's painful for me to even have sex at this point. I've now seen 4 gps who are all refusing to treat me so I'm now resorting to try to order the antibiotics online. What was your gps reason for not treating you?

She said apparently most people have it? (From what she googled)
I can't understand why they don't treat for these things!? I also thought about ordering doxy online for like 2x weeks

I've read that most sexually active people do have it but if there are no symptoms then it's fine. I've had a lot of symptoms and my test showed the levels were like 3x they should be. I'm waiting to find out if the online pharmacy will give it to me. I'll let you know my outcome.

What symptoms are you having if you don't mind me asking?

Well I was told for years I had eczema and got sent from pillar to post with no real answers and a whole load of steroid cream which is why I started seeing the nutritional therapist and had the test done. Clearly all the irritation was caused by the imbalance of my microbiome and the pathogens that are overgrown.

Hi, i hope you don't mind me jumping in on this thread but i'm interested to know what peoples symptoms are.

My story (sorry for the essay) - Been with the same partner for 16 years. We've never been able to conceive naturally. Had various tests (ureaplasma NOT being one of them) and were told it was unexplained infertility. Luckily with some successful fresh IVF cycles & some failed Frozen cycles we ended up with 2 beautiful kids.
Since then, i get really uncomfortable pain around ovaries for a good week around ovulation (never had this before having kids).

Every now and then i get the feeling like i'm getting a UTI (the heavy feeling in bladder, slight sting at the end of pee stream) then in most cases it eases off on it own or after i drink a tonn of water to flush it out.
An increase in thrush, probably every 2-3 months (which i'm now suspecting is actually BV).
I also just have a heavy uncomfortable feeling in lower abdomen/pelvic area on and off throughout the month that doesn't seem to have any relevance to my cycle.

Lower back pain on and off but when on, lasts for a around 2 weeks.
As well as this, my partner, for around 2 years has been dealing with painful and inflamed tubes around the testicle area that the drs keep giving him anti inflammatories for but dont know whats causing it. Anti inflams reduce the pain a bit but the second he stops them he's in pain again.

At the beginning of Aug, i did a microbiome test (Daye) and it came back with higher than normal BV bacteria, low Lactobacilli which is good bacterial and a high level of Ureaplasma.
After a bit of research and realising, while not much is know about it ureaplasma, it can cause infertility, varicocele in men amd load of other issues. After many calls to the dr's to try and get an appointment, i finally seen a GP today who said he'd never heard of ureaplasma and had to google it. While he googled i told him everything i knew & the anti biotics that were recommended (doxycyline) and to my surprise he very quickly agreed and prescribed me and my partner two weeks worth.

Not started them yet, but excited to see if it actually makes any difference.

Hi Cilla01! I'm so sorry to hear you have suffered like that for many years! I've done so much research into ureaplasma and it's crazy how many doctors have never heard of it. I spoke to 4 doctors who all refused to treat me even though I had a positive test so you're lucky you managed to get treatment. I ended up doing an online consultation and got 7 days of treatment for me and my partner which I'm hoping has worked although I do still have some symptoms.
my symptoms are mostly just what I thought was vulva eczema and more recently (this year) painful sex although I've always been prone to thrush and Utis. My microbiome is basically the same as yours though, high levels of bv causing bacteria, low Lactobacillus and high levels of ureaplasma. I'm taking loads of probiotics both orally and vaginally and have also started putting lactose up there which apparently encourages the lactobacillus to grow is it feeds it. Happy to have a chat with you. I've felt so alone for years with this and it's not something you can openly talk about to people.

Hi girls,

I am a Dietitian and has just done a course about Women Health and Fertility. One my teachers, that is a pioneer and a reference in the field, mentioned several times on the course about how common Ureaplasma/ Mycoplasma are and their effect on fertility.

According to her it is very common, but it can cause zero symptoms. Sometimes it causes pain in the urethra after intercourse and discharge in women. The symptoms are more like of a mild Candida infection.

In men it is common for injuries such as small cuts on the penis and pain during sexual intercourse (malanoposthitis). It increases DNA fragmentation, alters sperm and increases abortion rate.

Treatment: 100mg of Doxycycline for 10 days - every 12 hours, concomitantly with a partner. Always evaluate before taking antibiotics. Try for pregnancy after 74 days until you have completely new sperm. Azithromycin does not kill completely in a single dose and recontaminates.

Every patient that she referred to the gynecologists she works with have been treated with the above protocol with 100% rate of success.

The wait is also recommended as if there is an infection, there is an inflammatory process and an increase in oxidative stress, which worsens the quality of the gametes (oocytes and sperm). Therefore, the ideal is to undergo antibiotic treatment and wait 3 months to start ovarian stimulation for collection.

The 3-month period is due to the infection that generates inflammation and can worsen the quality of the sperm and the maturation of the follicles and not because of the antibiotic itself. This period is recommended due to the time it takes for gametes to form.

That's really interesting thanks for the info! I was only prescribed doxycycline for 7 days so do you think it's likely the treatment may not have worked? I'm still getting some
symptoms but I don't know if that's because of the other "bad bacteria" I have or because it's still there.

Have you taken it every 12 hours? My teachers are adamant about the requirement of at least 10 days - every 12 hours for the treatment to be effective.

Sometimes the symptoms can be also from the presence of other bacterias, that is why she recommends to do a hysteroscopy and take a biopsy for the microbioma test to investigate for the presence of other bacterias like Mycoplasma, Trichomonas, Gardnerella (Secnidazole) and do an antifungigram as well.

ONLY IF THE RESULTS OF THE HYSTEROSCOPY COME BACK POSITIVE: according to her the ideal is the treatment is with a pool of antibiotics: Ceftriaxone (injectable), associated with Doxycycline for 12-14 days, every 12 hours, and often with an additional antibiotic with Amoxicillin with Clavulanate.

It is definitely important to wait at least 74 days after finishing antibiotic treatment to try to go for egg collection.

Have you taken it every 12 hours? My teachers are adamant about the requirement of at least 10 days - every 12 hours for the treatment to be effective.

Sometimes the symptoms can be also from the presence of other bacterias, that is why she recommends to do a hysteroscopy and take a biopsy for the microbioma test to investigate for the presence of other bacterias like Mycoplasma, Trichomonas, Gardnerella (Secnidazole) and do an antifungigram as well.

ONLY IF THE RESULTS OF THE HYSTEROSCOPY COME BACK POSITIVE: according to her the ideal treatment is with a pool of antibiotics: Ceftriaxone (injectable), associated with Doxycycline for 12-14 days, every 12 hours, and often with an additional antibiotic with Amoxicillin with Clavulanate.

It is definitely important to wait at least 74 days after finishing antibiotic treatment before going for egg/ sperm collection.

I took it every 12 hours for 7 days and so did my partner. All the research I've done indicated 7 days.
I've had a microbiome test and know I have gardnerella, prevotella and atopobium vaginae although I read that doxycycline can also get rid of some of these bacteria's.
Now im concerned and think I may need more antibiotics. I want to do another rest really but they cost me £170 a time!

I did 2 weeks of doxy and I'm STILL positive for it, I have horrible uti/bv symptoms alongside it.

Girls,

I found an article I've been looking for from the content of the course I did, It is about the prevalence of chronic endometritis in repeated unexplained implantation failure and the IVF success rate after antibiotic therapy.
After the results' section it goes through the different courses of antibiotics recommended to treat for different bacterias:

academic.oup.com/humrep/article/30/2/323/726170?login=false

I had a session with my nutritional therapist today who said that it's likely I'll need another round of antibiotics as ureaplasma is really hard to get rid of. I've got a test to do next week once I've hit 4 weeks since treatment so I'll know for definite if I still have it.

I went to Superdrug online and told them I had chlamydia (I didn't) and separately bv. Then self medicated methotrexate and doxy for a few weeks. Then had twins on next transfer! I'm sure it helped.

ps also mainlined all the probiotics I could get my hands on, through all holes

That's interesting. How did you get a few weeks worth of doxy? I thought it was like 1 tablet to treat chlamydia?
Also loling at the probiotics in all holes. I'm a bit like that right now too!

Hello
im wondering if Ureaplasma affects embryos already produced (now frozen)
we did a cycle and have 5 embryos frozen. We tested for ureaplasma etc after this cycle as fresh transfer didn’t work.
Ureaplasma came back positive.
We took doxy for 2 weeks, retested and tests were negative.
However, now I’m worried about the frozen embryos and will they be affected by the initial Ureaplasma infection from the sperm?

Hi ladies! Circling back to this a year later, how did everyone get on?

Hi @Sandylands I have been reading the above thread as I have recently just treated myself and partner as i tested positive for Ureaplasma. We have unexplained infertility and have been TTC for 18 months.

I am hoping now we have cleared it that we may have some joy conceiving, we are currently in the process of starting our IVF journey. I wanted to ask if you had any success conceiving since you cleared Ureaplasma?

Unfortunately not! I'm still having chronic bv and have also have endometriosis