[Sammersam]

Hi there,

I apologize for the length of this post but I was wondering if anyone out there could help me figure this out. I'm 27 yrs old and have been taking the birth control pill for 7 years. For the last few years I have been on ortho tri cyclen lo.

In April of last year I got what I thought was a nasty UTI. But even after 4 rounds of a few different antibiotics my symptoms would not go away even though my tests were coming back negative for a UTI.

Things calmed down over the summer a bit but when autumn began my symptoms returned with a vengeance. Severe burning sensations in my bladder, weak urine stream and pelvic pain.

I also started getting this awful sensation, like my vaginal walls were tightening up, so tight that they might snap.

I have had ultra sounds for my bladder and uterus, blood tests for inflammatory diseases and cancer, and more urinalysis tests then I can count. All came back fine and dandy.

The only thing I noticed after keeping a pain journal for a few months was that my symptoms got better when I was finishing the last week of my ortho tri cyclen lo pills (the week with the highest hormone dose). So my doctor switched me to just the regular ortho tri cyclen pills to see if a higher hormone level would help.

After three months my symptoms did seem to even out, but they did not go away. They just became manageable.

I have heard from a friend of a friend that going on the pill can cause a woman to have severely lowered levels of estrogen and progesterone, which can cause pain and cystitis like symptoms.
I've decided to go off the pill to see if it helps, but so far, after a week without taking it, my symptoms have gotten worse. Which would make sense I guess if my hypothesis is correct...

Does anyone else out there have any experience with this? After almost a year I'm grasping at straws and there's so much I don't know. I'd appreciate any advice.

Sorry about the long post and thanks for your time.

[kira]

Try an otc treatment for yeast infections. I had symptoms consistent with severe bladder infection and it turned out to be a severe yeast infection causing all the irritation. Altering hormones such as through birth control pills can make some people very prone to yeast infections. Antibiotics will just drag things out and can cause yeast infections too so that may be contributing. otc treatments are cheap and harmless if you follow directions so there is no reason not to give it a shot before running all sorts of expensive tests.

[Sammersam]

Hi, thanks so much for the quick response. I should have mentioned that I and my doctor have ruled out a yeast problem already, sorry.

I am also 95% sure at this point that it is not a food allergy either.

[evilgothicjenn]

I REALLY want to try like, estrogen pills now....
My doctor told me I "probably" have cystitis about a year ago. But nothing in this town is ever final... All half-assumed diagnoses. It seems that AZO helps the symptoms nicely though ^_^ I just take some of those for the 2-4 days that it usually lasts...