Cystitis/UTI

Hi,
I have been diagnosed with vulvodynia, I am currently taking antidepressants and have been seeing a women's health physio over the last year, and have also seen a chiroprator. The problem is I get cystitis or UTI everytime we try to have sex, due to the pain this doesn't happen very often twice a month, and really doesn't last that long before we have to stop. I follow all the rules wash and wee before and wash and wee after. I've tried water d mannose powder but it hasn't work for me. Doctors are useless as their answer is long term antibotics, or to take one antibotic after sex which I really don't want to do! Just wondering if anyone else can offer advice.


Many thanks

Kt

I'm not sexually active right now but I have started getting repeated UTIs, it's got to the stage where I get one every other month at least and the last one went to my kidneys and made me really, really ill so I asked my Women's Health Physio about this and she explained if your pelvic floor is tight (mine is horrendous) it inhibits the detrusor muscle which should contract to empty the bladder at the same time the pelvic floor relaxes to allow this to happen. If your pelvic floor can't relax fully clearly your bladder isn't going to empty properly and the urine left in there is in her words "like stagnant pond water and a breeding ground for infections to take hold" so she recommends women with tight PF muscles and UTIs do double voiding which is basically exactly what it sounds like and go once until your brain thinks your bladder is empty followed by waiting a couple of minutes either in place or move around a bit then try again to see if there's more in there. Do this every time you pee to make sure nothing gets left behind to help infections take hold and especially after sex. I do the double voiding (and triple voiding if I can still feel some urine in there) and I always have some left after my brain is convinced I have an empty bladder. My PF is brutal and feels like wood because of another health condition so my physio is looking into trying to get me a device that vibrates and you hold it over the bladder every so often to stimulate the bladder to empty, patients with MS sometimes use them for this reason so if she does manage to acquire one for me I'll update with results but definitely try the double voiding routine to see if it helps.

I used to get UTI's every time I had sex too. I finally stopped them by drinking at least 16 oz of water immediately afterwards. And, I never have sex before going to bed. Unfortunately, I got lazy on this in Feb, and that's when I got a UTI again (and the dreaded V).

Hi,

Thanks for both responses, all ready doing both of these, yeah I also have problems with not always being able to empty my bladder something physio has helped me with, but still stuck with infections, generally 24 hours after sex I will have cystitis, or recently within half an hour the frequency goes up, need to go every15-20 mins. Doesn't burn as much during sex or after sex used to burn for hours anywhere between 3-6 hours. During sex I get a slightly burning sensation and a stretching sensation. Then we have to give up. Still working on the dilators, problem is once I have an infection even doing the dilators are out of the question, I told my doctor this and she responded well u shouldn't have to stop using the dialators because you have an infection!! At which point I wanted to shout at her!
I find if I use the dialators regularly this helps when it comes to trying sex, however I find I need to do it everyday and then having infection I seem to go back to square one, so frustrating, but I am sure everyone can see where I'm coming from.

I have the same issue, if I don't clench for a while then get a UTI I clench like crazy because of the irritation and no you shouldn't use dilators with an infection present stupid doctor! It may be that you're still retaining urine without knowing it, an ultrasound can tell you this and you have one with a full bladder then pee and have a repeat one to see what's still in there, apparently 100ml is normal but over that isn't according to my physio. I'll be having one soon if my frequent UTIs continue. Do you use lube? Anything oil based can allow bacteria to cling to it and help it into the urethra so if you use oil based probably shouldn't however water based ones can do it with me too so it's not foolproof.

Hi,
Thanks for the message about lube, never knew that used to use oil based but generally now used water based.

Thanks kt