pain and discomfort in urethra, but no UTI

I've had these same issues and have not yet figured out the problem. A friend of mine had it too and had to go to 3 different doctors including 2 gynos to find the issue which was a bacterial infection, serious that had to be treated with antibiotics. It was not a UTI but she's fine now after the new antibiotics. Please see a specialist and in the meantime, drink 3 cups unsweetened cranberry juice form the health food store (very VERY tart) with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar a day. A tablespoon more of vinegar can be added if it's especially bad but wait half a day before another vinegar dose. This will help clean you out but the problem will recur. No alcohol and lots of water.

For all of you who wrote about painful bladder, urination frequency, pressure, burning etc.: I too thought my problem was UTI's my whole life, until last October when my urine culture came back negative. I had a pelvic ultrasound, which was VERY painful, with no abnormalities. I went to 2 Urologists, one who performed cystoscopy & found everything to be "normal"-though at this point I was in excrutiatiing pain-it even hurt to sit down. I was also urinating up to 25 times per day. The 2 Urologists I saw were pretty dismissive, and totally missed the diagnosis. FINALLY my gynocologist recommend that I see a Uro-gynocologist. That was the best thing I ever did for myself. I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cyctitis
(IC for short). I'm on 3 medications (Prosed, Elmiron, and Flexeril) that have helped me some. I'm in the middle of an 8 week course of therapy where my Uro-gyn instills my bladder with 4 different kinds of medication. This way the meds go directly to the problem zone, which is the inside wall of my bladder. Google the phrase & you can learn about it. Specifically, the IC Network has loads of information, help & hope. I really hope this helps someone out there! There are support groups & special diet suggestions that are a tremendous help. Stay away from the Cranberry Juice! It won't help you if you have IC, in fact, it can make it worse. Good luck to all, and get on the road to recovery!

Up until a few months ago, I had gone about 15 years without a UTI. 15 years ago, I had the symptoms of a UTI, but tested negative. The pain, bladder fullness and urgency went on for months on end and I felt like I was going crazy. I'm guessing that it was yeast that was causing all of the symptoms since nothing the doctors did seemed to help. Apparently, you can get your culture tested for yeast, but you have to ask. I did a homeopathic yeast cleanse, cut out sugar and added some serious probiotics and the symptoms went away. I have been back to eating a lot of sugar and carbs for the past few years and occasionally forget to take probiotics for awhile. So, back to my original regimen to see if I can kick it again. The other amazing thing I read about for true UTIs is D-Mannose (works in 90% of the cases if the bacteria is Ecoli -even better than cranberries and blueberries. Just search on it and I think you will be as astounded as I was about how it can help with NO side effects! Wishing you all the best.

I have been getting uti's over and over again , I just got this stuff couple days ago and it feels that it's working, but You need to take more than what it says in the box, take 2 times 4 pills. The box has only 60 and I know it's a bit expensive, but this si natural and is not damaging our bodies as antibiotics.
Good luck

doctors dont seem to have the answers...what is causing our urethra to be irritated...could it be a fungus?...anyone treated with an antifungal..maybe diflucan?

ok, so i have been suffering for the past four months and i'm not even sure why. I began getting UTIs when i became sexually active. I always got antibiotics for them, and it would clear up in a few days. In May, i got a UTI while i was on vacation, and was only able to treat it with an over-the-counter drug initially. When i came home, i got antibiotics and the symptoms lessened, but did not totally go away. Since then, i have seen four different doctors and I've had roughly five or six antibiotics. My first test showed a UTI, but a second came back negative. I really was convinced I had one, so I saw another doctor, who confirmed it, once again. When it didnt respond to the medicine, i was sent to the hospital for a sensitivity test. They found the e-coli bacteria and treated it with Macrobid. It didnt seem to help, so i tried amoxicillin and d-mannose, along with several other things. Symptoms have improved, but are far from gone. In the mean time, i lost my health insurance, which kept me from seeing a gynocologist. I am currently waiting to get into a free clinic in my area. A couple of the doctors I saw suggested that it may be an STD.. some thought herpes, while another thought gonnorhea or chlamidia. The last doctor, however, laughed and said i dont have the symptoms of any. Currently, these are my symptoms: 1. a slight burning feeling only occassionally, and usually when i first wake up. It used to be more intense, but has lessened over time. It does not hurt when i urinate, although it did when i first contracted this UTI. (I'm thinking I had one, but now its gone, and something else is wrong.) 2. I get a pulsing, throbbing feeling that seems to be coming from my urethra. It usually happens once a day, and only lasts for a few minutes. On certain days, it doesnt really happen at all. I was born with a mega colon, which causes me to have to push hard at times to go to the bathroom. After doing so, i usually get this throbbing for a few minutes, which then goes away. I wouldn't describe it as painful, but as more of an annoyance. I keep looking up the symptoms of STDs and most of them talk about warts, pain during urination, etc. These are all things that i dont have. Also, i had no problems with pain or anything else, prior to the UTI, which makes me think it's not endometriosis. Every single thing i look up says nothing about this throbbing feeling. I am wondering if it could have something to do with the muscles, or if i could still have an infection? I asked my doctor if she thought that it could be irritated from me having a UTI for weeks, and she said its possible. I have taken several things that are supposed to help this, but it refuses to go away! Any advice or ideas would help very much!!! I'm so glad im not the only one, but im scared that im gonna have this forever!

Hi,

I have hydronephrosis and I JUST went to the urologist and everythign looked great. Then, last night i felt like i had a UTI ALL NIGHT, didnt fall asleep till 4am. It burned in my urethra where I tried putting pressure on the area and that helped but not really, I got up and peed like 10 times.

I pee a lot because of my hydro, but this was different.

But now this morning, I feel fine...any ideas?

Uh, that sounds really unusual. I don't know quite what happened but if it happens again, see a doctor about it. It sounds like it could happen again and cause you serious issue. But if it only happened once, I'm not sure what it was. What do you think of that plan?

Hi Everyone. Im so glad i found this site as i now know im not alone and not going nuts.
My story.. I recently divorced and after two years i started dating and after some weeks we had sex. Four days later i had symptoms of cystitis. I took some of the over the counter remedies for cystitis and it helped somewhat although never went away completely. 2 months later the symptoms worsened and i went to see my gp, my urine sample tested positive for a bacterial infection and i was given antibiotics, however the symptoms never went away even though follow up cultures showed no sign of an infection. Trace amount of blood and protien but doc said this wouldnt have been enough to suspect an infection. Over the past 3 months my symptoms have worsened. I suffer from... burning, a very sore irritated sensation in urethra, but more so, its 5 mins + after ive emptied my bladder and the pain is severe for about an hour, i cant sit as it seems the pressure sends sharp shooting stabbing pains deep inside my bladder in in my lower abdomen. It hurts to walk too. If my bladder is full i get sharp stabbing shooting pains and need to go to loo. If there is a small amount of urine in my bladder it hurts more and only trickles out.
I did go see a urologist who did very little but try to reassure me!! I have since requested tests because i am now at my wits end.
I read earlier that someone mentioned a conncetion with herpes.. i have the hsv1 virus and wondered it there was a connection although the urethral symptoms were present months before the hsv 1 symptoms. I also suffer with sharp spasm type pains in my right buttock and starting to wonder if there is a connection as i went to see a physio and he told me that bladder and bowel conditions can cause referrred pain to the buttocks.

Im so miserable with all this.
I will keep an eye on this thread in the hope that someone at somepoint may find something that actually helps.
good luck everyone :'( :'( :'(

ive had uti problems since i was 19 years old. I am now 24. Well, after having a UTI 18 times in a year I finally had a scope done. They found nothing but my urethra being too tight. So by the end of the scope they stratched it out. Instead of 18 a year I only ended up getting 5 or 6. The only time I would be clear of a UTI was when I was pregnant. I had 9 months free 2 times without a UTI which was lovely too! But I dont want to be pregnant for the rest of my life so I wont get one. I just recently had symptoms of another UTI on the 17th. Got tested and the Dr confirmed it was a UTI. He sent the urine to the lab to get it tested and the results came back neg. I took 10 days of cipro and 7 days of that pain releiver for your bladder. It didnt get any better and got worse yesterday! My Dr is sending me back to get a scope and see about stretching the urethra again. If this works, then my Dr said it will be a yearly scope to stretch :-( since august 2009 Ive had 5 UTIs :-(

I started having pain and frequent urgency to urinate around the last of Nov. 2009. I was placed on antibotics, but the symptoms were still there. I even was placed on Diflucan(for yeast infection) and the symptoms eased off a little, but I was still having pain in my urethra. After researching my condition and the symptoms I decided to take some iron supplements, which I am an anemic. I started taking the iron tablets along with vitamin C supplement for fast absorption and believe it or not all my symptoms are gone. I encourage you all to get your iron level checked. You may be surprised. It worked for me.

I feel your pain ladies, I'm going through the exact same thing and know how awful it is :-( I used to have lots of uti's as a child but then throughout my teenage years didn't have any. I'm 23 now and they've come back in the past 3 years. I tend to get a new uti every 3 months and I can't handle it anymore, I just had one last week, was in total agony and was given antibiotics, which did nothing so I was told to stop taking them and prescribed another type by the doctor. I finished the course on Sunday and although it feels alot better I'm still have a stinging pain in my urethra, I had another urine test done and same as you ladies, no bacteria. It tends to feel alot worse if I wear trousers or sit in the same place for a long time same as some of you are saying. I really want to find the answer to this, I think it could be stimulated by acidic drinks and food as well and think it could be that the area has been a bit damaged by all the acidity of the bacteria. This is totally depressing me as well, I am due to see a urologist in a few weeks but from what people are saying I won't get my hopes up. What do urologists actually do? Do they take scan of the bladder and kidneys?

2 years ago I had this, and doctors thought I Was nuts..of course. TCM medicine helped. now I just got another one..took antibiotics Macrobid 1 week. pain is gone but not the discomfort. I will be seeing TCM guy tomorrow. will update on how I feel.

Hi everyone, I am a 25 year old female and my situation is very odd. When I was nine years old I fell from a tree onto a bicycle bar. I busted my vagina very bad. Ever since the incident happened I was always in the doctor with painful urination and frequent UTI'S. Many years later after I became sexually active, I noticed a horrible pattern and didn't realize that it would ruin my life. I noticed that everytime I had sex, the following day I would experiance a very very painful burn in my urethra. The only thing that happened to help the pain was when I sat on the toilet and pushed out. I also noticed AZO would help. I have been to numerous urologist and had my urethra dialated. That didn't help;( I was tested for IC and that came back negative. I was put to sleep and had a camera inserted in my stomach to check for ulcers and nothing! I can't even begin to tell you how many doctor bills I have racked up due to no health insurance. This is so depressing. I am now seeing a pelvic physical therapist who seems to think the pain is due to the bike accident when I was a child. I saw the posting about tea tree oil and WOW WHAT A RELIEF! I can't believe how well this stuff works. I dabbed a q tip in the bottle of tea tree oil and rubbed it right on my urethra and it was instant relief. I can't believe doctors have never mentioned this before. I really wish I could find the route of my problem so the confusion and depression would go away. I want a normal 25 year old sex life;( It sucks to have sex knowing your going to be in extreme pain the next day. Has anyone ever had this issure? Note: I do not experiance pain during sex, it's just the next day.

I hate that I have nothing to contribute, but I've been living with this for 3 years. I was treated once and the pain went away for two months...needless to say, it's back again and after reading these posts I've lost all faith in doctors. Even the first time I went to my doctor and told her how long the symptoms had been persisting, she said that was very unlikely and she doubted I had a UTI...completely useless. She tested me and it came back positive, but now that it's come back I don't know what to do.

My main question is, What OTC medications can I take to help? I don't like doctors to begin with due to their lack of actual caring and I would like to be able to do something other than cut out half of my entire diet, which I've already basically done. Thank you very much and I just want to say how strong all of you are to live with this...no one else can understand the frustration and pain associated with this problem.