I went into very early menopause - in fact I only ever had 3 periods my entire life. Blood test when I was 20 put me as menopausal, I'm now 34. I had every test under the sun and they all came back normal, so no cause was found, just "one of those things".
In my 20s I was put on various brands of pill, none of which agreed with me. I felt very depressed to the point of suicidal, and decided not to take any further medication for that reason. During my 20s I was overweight but subsequently have lost 4st.
At the end of May I started to get what I thought was a UTI - dull pelvic ache. I was prescribed various antibiotics even though urine samples were negative for infection. I was referred to a uro-gynae who felt I had two problems - low oestrogen and a low grade infection. He said I had urethritis. He sent a urine sample off to "grow" and it came back with a small growth of ESBL, an antibiotic resistant enzyme given off by e-Coli. But the amount that came back was small. At this point my Uro-Gynae admitted me to hospital as I had a bad pain attack, in hindsight I think my pelvic floor went into spasm. In hospital they gave me more antibiotics for ESBL even tho the amount in the sample was small. Again no change, and in essence they had no idea what was wrong with me. They discharged me with amitriptylene and zanaflex, neither of which did anything.
To complicate matters I had a tummy tuck done in January, various consultants thought it could be responsible. But it's pretty much been ruled out. I had a laparoscopy last week which was "perfect".
Fast forward to now and I'm on a low dose oestrogen patch - Estradot 37.5 mcg and Urogestan 100mg tabs every day (no break), with a view to gradually increasing the oestrogen patch. Up until 2 weeks ago I had terrible bladder pressure pain, I couldn't lie on my side for longer than a few seconds. I found a box of Vagifem and thought what the hell, and within 4 days I started to be able to lie on my side again.
To complicate matters further, my pain doc thought I could have a pudendal nerve problem and last Friday I had a test (positive) and block done. I feel all this gave me was a horrid burning pain in my lower back that lidocaine patches took care of.
Now, the pressure when lying on my side is 90% better, but I feel pressure when lying on my back, and feel a sort of urethral pressure. I feel like I have to pee all the time, and my bladder feels full when there may only be 300ml in there. I can't wear tight-ish clothing as it makes the pressure worse. I am emptying my bladder fully, and had a cystoscope when I was in hospital which came back clear.
I was hoping the Vagifem would take care of the other symptoms as quick as it did the pressure when lying on my side, but I guess I have only been using it 2 weeks. I'm now also using estrogen cream externally over the urethra. I also had really bad external itching which got 50% better after 1 week.
Does all this sound like atrophy problems, or pudendal nerve? My physio and gynae weren't convinced it was pudendal, physio said the latency test can come back positive but it doesn't necessarily mean there's a pudendal problem. The pressure feeling started to get better before I had the block, and since the block I haven't felt any better.
I just wish I knew for sure that this is hormonal, and reversible. I haven't been in work in 4 months because of the discomfort. I'm only 34 and this is misery!
