Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: Meeka on January 28, 2021, 10:46:13 AM
-
Hi everyone ,
I haven’t posted for a while but I have found the shared knowledge on this forum to be invaluable in the past . I am 58 and have been using oestrogel / utrogestan since I was around 50 . I use 4 pumps of oestrogel and use utrogestan 100 mg vaginally for 7 days which produces a good bleed. If I take it orally I sometimes don’t get a bleed or bleed is minimal which concerned me . As I’ve got older my blood oestradiol level has dropped to around 135 but in 2015 it was only 144 so this is not a recent thing . I have felt ok overall with this level and stuck with the oestrogel combo and a recent uterine scan revealed all was ok .
I am now developing regular urinary tract infections .
The last two seem to have developed after my withdrawal bleed . I only use pads which I change regularly but I’m wondering if using oestrogel vaginally may be affecting the flora of my vagina or maybe the antibiotics used to treat the UTI .
I have not suffered from any UTI s in my earlier life but started to have them more after age of 55 and now they are regular. I am also using Ovestin , only recently , which I’m hoping helps in the long run .
Any shared knowledge would be greatly appreciated .
Thank you
-
Morning. Has a fresh urine sample been sent to a Lab. to make sure it's an infection rather than vaginal atrophy?
'vagifem' or 'ovestin' are the usual products prescribed. If symptoms continue to niggle use 'ovestin' nightly for as long as required, sometimes I need a dose mid-day. I also swallow 'nurofen' 2 capsules 3 times a day for 2/3 days - it eases the need to pee sensations.
-
Morning. Has a fresh urine sample been sent to a Lab. to make sure it's an infection rather than vaginal atrophy?
'vagifem' or 'ovestin' are the usual products prescribed. If symptoms continue to niggle use 'ovestin' nightly for as long as required, sometimes I need a dose mid-day. I also swallow 'nurofen' 2 capsules 3 times a day for 2/3 days - it eases the need to pee sensations.
Hi.
Thank you for your reply and advice about ovestin . I have been using paracetamol to manage symptoms as I have had gastritis so have to be careful with ibuprofen . I always take a sample to GP and they send to the lab . This time I got nitrofurantion for 3 days but not sure it has done the trick so far . Last time they changed script to amoxicillin as they said lab test revealed the bacteria would respond better to this and it did .
I take every precaution with bowel movements as I’m aware E. coli is main bacteria .
-
Do read the 'bladder issues' thread. Sometimes infections may become embedded 4 which is a different form of treatment is required. Does paracetamol help? I don't get any relief with that. MayB ask a pharmacist for advice if you think something else is required.
-
Thanks CLKD I’ll read the thread . Yes paracetamol numbs the feeling in my bladder and I don’t need the loo as much . Ibruprofen and aspirin cause my gastritis to flare .
-
Those are tablets to keep away from then!!
Let me know how you get on.
-
I recently found a link to this specialist who has interesting information regarding recurrent UTI ‘s and the treatment required to prevent the problem becoming chronic .
https://www.chronicutiinfo.com/treatment/conventional-medicine/uk-treatment/prof-malone-lee/
-
This is an explanation of how a urinary tract infection can become chronic but give a negative result for infection in the urine
https://www.chronicutiinfo.com/chronic-uti-facts/chronic-uti-explained/
-
Certainly infections can become embedded.
How R U?
-
I’m ok so far after nitrofurantoin but still occasional bladder tenderness . I have noticed that if I become cold , walking or standing outside , then this can cause a flare up . If I keep having issues I may consult with a specialist as I don’t want to keep having short doses of antibiotics that don’t give long term relief .
-
Hope your ok too CLKD as I read your a sufferer too .
-
Oh I don't suffer as long as I keep the VA under control.
It began 4 me with intermittent urine infection type symptoms: wasn't comfy unless sitting on the loo with a cuppa in 1 hand and barley water in the other ::) waiting for ABs to work. Eventually my GP got quite annoyed with the Staff who weren't sending my sample to a Lab. - no sign of infection on any occasion which was 3/4 over 2 years. Dip stick test isn't good enough!
So he rang me to explain what treatment I required :-* 8). 'ovestin' suits me for the time being. Used regularly to keep symptoms under control.
-
Great that you got it under control the ovestin works for you . I’m hoping ovestin works well for me and I am free from infection . It makes sense to me that prof malone lee states that the bacteria can invade the lining of the bladder and irritate the bladder /cause inflammation and cell changes but no bacteria are present in the urine upon testing . They then re colonise the urine when conditions are right .
-
I take 'nurofen' if my bladder niggles, I may have said B4 ::)
-
I’m ok so far after nitrofurantoin but still occasional bladder tenderness . I have noticed that if I become cold , walking or standing outside , then this can cause a flare up . If I keep having issues I may consult with a specialist as I don’t want to keep having short doses of antibiotics that don’t give long term relief .
A urogynaecologist ,who works with Malone, told me that 3 day courses of AB's should never be prescribed. They don't complete the job and contribute to embedded infections. The minimum should be 7 days.
-
That’s interesting katejo . May I ask who your urogyneacoligist is ? Thank you
-
I've never been able to complete a Course of ABs. I get too sick, dizzy and really ill.
-
I've never been able to complete a Course of ABs. I get too sick, dizzy and really ill.
I thought I would have to ask for alternative antibiotic this time as they made me feel sick . I read online that other users said they could only tolerate them if taken with a meal . I made sure I only took with a substantial meal and I was ok . Just hope I don’t get symptoms again now .
-
Can I share something some of you might think is whacky but absolutely does work?
A couple of years ago I had a succession of UTIs and had a few courses of antibiotics which helped but I never felt better, well I felt better than I had but not 'better better'. I am not a natural pill popper and I try hard to have a healthy gut biome so I didn't want to end up having course after course of them as I'd read many women end up having.
So what could I do to get rid of the problem?
I starved the little gits to death. Took me 9 days and it has never recurred.
I found an old (1933) medical paper on the internet describing how they cured UTIs with a strict ketogenic diet (enter search " ketogenic diet urinary tract infection"). 1933 was before antibiotics were widespread.
It immediately made complete sense to me (a) I already knew quite a bit about the ketogenic diet as I had done some research into it as a therapy for epilepsy (b) I'm a type 1 diabetic so I have a lot of practical experience of seeing how different foods kick out different amounts of glucose and how this affects blood sugars and all other fluids including and especially urine (3) I also remembered that when I was young and sexy and I’d occasionally got a UTI that I’d got rid of them by not eating for 24 hours.
So it made sense : we have bugs in our urine and they are living very happily on the sugar in our urine.
That sugar overwhelming comes from eating (or drinking) foods with carbohydrates.
In the ketogenic diet you really cut back on carbs which means less sugar in urine. And the bugs starve.
However, a warning. Keto has become a fashionable diet so the word ketogenic is bandied about for anything that is low carb but "low carb" is a relative term. Is 200g a day low? what about 100g ? 50g? 10g?
It needs to be less than 20g of carbs a day.
So that is what I did. I ate no more than 20g of carbs a day. I looked up the nutritional content of everything and I weighed and measured absolutely everything I ate and drank so as not to go over by 1 gram. I needed my calculator and I kept detailed records.
I had to really forward think and plan my meals because 20g of carbs affords you very little and you cannot really have things like bread, cake, rice, pasta, biscuits, sweets, cereals, smoothies, beans and pulses, fruit, potatoes and root vegetables etc etc. Even milk is too sugary (you can have it but it has to come out of your 20g a day allowance so it’s not worth it). On the plus side you can have as much fat as you like so I ate things like - prawn cocktail, pate, creamy cheeses, eggs, mayo, cream, buttery sauces on meat etc. Stuff I wouldn’t normally have in any quantity or regularity. I saved most of my 20g carbs for some green veg.
After a few days I was feeling better and at around 9 days I knew it was gone - I finally felt properly better and it was then that I realised that I had never really got rid of the original infection, I’d just been damped it down.
-
Hi flightdeck ,
That’s really interesting and I can see the connection between sugar and infection , especially as you have type 1 diabetes . My son has type1 diabetes and having good control of his blood sugar always helps when he’s poorly with some kind of infection . I did actually avoid sugar and carbs when I had my latest UTI and hopefully it has helped as I haven’t had any recurrence , fingers crossed .