Bladder Control

[terrifree]

I am a 48 yr old female who for the last several months has had problems with frequent urination and constant bladder pressure... I cannot even drink a small glass of water without having having to urinate immediately. Tests for bladder/urinary infections have come back negative, including urine cultures. I had a cystoscopy and it came back clear...I have no pain or burning when I urinate and no other pain in my abdomen and no leaking, so basically my urologist is treating me as though I have an overactive bladder even though I am not incontinent. She has prescribed enablex, which basically causes such bad dry mouth, that I am constantly thirsty which contributes to the problem and it has not worked after taking it for 3 months. I do not feel as though I have OAB because I have no leakage and no accidents...so I am totally perplexed on what could be causing my bladder pressure and frequent urination. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[mik123]

Hi I am a 43 year old male with similar problem but I have urge continence with leakage I had a indwelling cather put in and that saved me from having to go to the bathroom. Latter I developed a reaction to having the catheter in my penis so they put a suprapubic catheter into my abdomen and now all is well. They wanted to put in a interstim stimulator in my back but I dont like the idea of having somthing thats electronic implanted into my back so I hope this helps you feel free to contact me if you wish.

[Susan C]

Hi Terri. I know exactly how you feel. I'm going through the same exact thing. I have to urinate every 30 minutes and I have bladder pressure - not pain, mostly pressure. I saw my urologist thinking it had to be a UTI, but an urinalysis and culture was negative. I then had a spiral pelvic CT scan which was clear except for a small ovarian cyst, but not in the area where I'm feeling the pressure. I don't have what you'd call pain, just a feeling of pressure. I no sooner urinate than I feel like I have to again. Azo Standard helps a lot, but when I stop taking it I get the symptoms again. The doctor had me try some Prosed and that helped, but again when I went off it I got the frequent urination and pressure again. Plus those meds give me such dry mouth. I'm wondering if this is a form of Interstitial Cystitis or just an overactive bladder, but it sure is uncomfortable. To make matters worse I've been trying to drink 64 ounces of water a day because I take fiber.