Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Pixielilac]

I am 57 and been on HRT for about 4-5 years. I have had almost constant UTI’s for the past 12 months. Get rid of one UTI and within a month I have another.
I drink loads of water and cranberry juice.
I do hair removal ‘down there’, been doing it before it got trendy for about 25 years so I don’t think it is connected to UTI’s.
Me and my husband are sexually active and everything is showered/cleaned beforehand.
Spoke to a nurse at doctors surgery today after the results of my latest UTI and she said oestrogen  lines the uretha and a lack of oestrogen can cause UTI’s.
So I have a telephone appointment in 2 weeks with my doctor to discuss the recurring UTI’s.
Before HRT I was prescribed a pessary cream to insert twice a week for atrophic vagina, I said to my previous doctor when the UTI’s started could I use the pessary cream again but he said no as I am now on HRT.
I am antibiotics all the time, it’s affecting my work as I have to keep going to the loo or have time off, and it is really starting to get me down.
So has anyone else had recurring UTI’s and how was it treated please, should I ask for a higher dose of HRT? I am on femiston conti1mg/5mg.
Edited to add-I also have arthritis and every time I have a UTI my arthritis flares up, I am so fed up with it.

[Taz2]

Just a quick reply but I am on HRT plus vagifem and it's wrong that your GP has said it's not necessary. I'm 68 and have been on this regime for many years

Taz x

[Turkish delight]

Hia,

I feel for you, you are in a pickle poor you.

I've had a couple of UTI's too lately. I managed to get to age 52 before ever having a single UTI.
Docs told me it's most likely due to the menopause as nothing else I do has changed. Changes to the PH from fluctuating hormones seems to be why it happens when meno related.

I believe it's true as at the same time I had a lot of my meno symptoms return. I increased my estrogen, and after having 2 rounds of antibiotics I'm now clear. It's wrong that you can't have localised vaginal estrogen when on HRT. Some old school Docs still do believe this, but my GP actually prescribed Vagifem to help prevent any more UTI'S.

As a side thing have you been checked for stone as well?

TD

[Pixielilac]

Thankyou for your replies.
I am going to ask for the vaginal oestrogen when I speak to my doctor.
What is stone please Turkish delight?

[Turkish delight]

People with blockages in their urinary tract, such as a kidney stone, are more likely to get UTIs

My Doc said that if I had more than 3 UTI'S a year then it's worth checking for kidney stones.
But as my hormones were so up and down at the time and I had a return of meno symptoms the smoking gun was clearly pointing at mine being from PH level changes.

[Pixielilac]

I’ve never been checked for a stone, I will mention this when I speak to my doctor, thankyou.

[CLKD]

Your GP should be prescribing appropriate vaginal atrophy treatment.  A fresh urine sample should be sent to a Lab to check for bugs, usually nothing shows up.  Vaginal atrophy mimics repeated urine infection-type symptoms really really well.  Ring your Surgery on Monday and ask for 'vagifem', you don't need to be examined and your GP is totally incorrect.

Many ladies require both HRT and vaginal atrophy treatment together, as well as sometimes needing antidepressants to help mental health or to ease hot flushes.  That GP needs to go on a course to find out about menopause 

Can U tell I'm annoyed!  Why don't GPs realise that repeated ABs that aren't helping the condition should be reviewed!!!

Let us know how you get on Monday - 2 weeks is far too long to wait to begin VA treatment.  The sooner the better.  Repeated use of ABs is causing problems World wide, in about 5 years according to some urologists most ABs won't work. 

[Pixielilac]

Thankyou for your replies.
So after a week on antibiotics I am still sore and stinging 
I have had a sample dipped today and the infection is still there so I am on another course of antibiotics.
I spoke to the nurse practitioner who tested my wee, about atrophic vagina that I was treated for maybe 5 years ago (can’t remember exactly) and she has prescribed a vaginal moisturiser, see how I get on with that and let her know how I am getting on in 3/4 weeks.
Maybe a light at the end of the tunnel, so fed up with this.

[Gynaikeíos]

Hello Pixielilac. It is rotten to have UTI (from what I read and been told). I hope the new prescription will work although should be a different AB, maybe?

If you have had a prescription for moisturiser then your nurse practitioner is out of date in her training. You are needing an oestrogen cream or pessary to treat VA same as your prescription 5 years ago. It will keep the tissues of your bladder and urethra supple and help prevent more UTI. Stop that rotten stinging and feeling sore.

With best wishes.

[CLKD]

Oh Dear!  dip sticks in surgery are no use at all  .  Was this sample sent to a Lab to check which AB needs prescribing, if you are having repeated infection-type symptoms, it is essential. 

Within 5 years the World will have such a resistance to AB therapies given on an 'in case' basis that bugs will take such a hold that nowt will work   


A moisturiser is as good as useless without appropriate VA treatment.  Ring your surgery this afternoon and ask for 'vagifem', which is the go-to treatment for vaginal atrophy, or 'ovestin' - some ladies insert the 'vagifem' pessary nightly and use the 'ovestin' on the outer labial areas.  U do not need examination, the Nurse should know more about VA.

I note that often inappropriate treatment is given on a Friday 

As well as asking her whether there is a copy of "Me and My Menopausal Vagina" in the Surgery?  If. not, suggest that she buys 1 from Amazon. Written by a valued Member of the Forum it should be essential reading for all medics.

[Pixielilac]

So, after finishing this 3 day course of antibiotics I am still stinging and same symptoms.
My sample is back from the lab and ‘borderline’.  Rang the doctors again, told them no way am I putting Replens in there again, it burns, why can’t I have Estradiol like I did a few years ago.
There is now a prescription for Estradiol waiting for me to collect and I have to drop off another wee sample.

Edited to add- it is Ovestin cream.

[Songbird]

Hi Pixielilac
I'm also 57 and, for the last 6 months, have been "irritation free" (vaginal atrophy). I had suffered for years with GP continually prescribing AB rather than considering VA.
Once I was examined by a new female GP, she said she had rarely seen such dryness "down there!" 
I have been taking estradiol 3 times a week for months and have never looked back. Thank God. It was seriously impacting my life in a negative way 
Really hope 🙏 you get sorted out..

[CLKD]

Replens  that's awful stuff if 1 has VA  full of fillers and NO oestrogen replacement.  Which Planet might your GP be on?

Don't bother with the urine sample, there is no such thing as a border line infection.  There is either an infection or not!  Unless it's embedded, in which case the GP should stop farting about and refer you to a urologist.  Far cheaper to prescribe appropriate VA treatment.

Let us know how you get on.  U can use it nightly if necessary. For ever.  Which have you been prescribed?

[Pixielilac]

It is Ovestin CLKD.

I had VA a few years back, I was examined and they said ‘it’s like tissue paper in there,’ and I bled a lot from the rxamination, that was when I was put on Estradiol, next time they looked after I had been on it a while I was examined again and the gynaecologist said ‘it’s like a nice juicy peach up there now’     .
I can’t remember but I think it was my doctor (who has now left) who took me off it, I had a years long battle to get HRT in the first place with him.
Also been prescribed an anaesthetic pain killing gel to put on my outside bits as I am so sore iteven hurts sitting down.

Thankyou you all of you for your replies, help and advice.

[CLKD]

'Ovestin' can be used every night if necessary, internally as well as on the outer labia.  As gentle as possible, sometimes I require an extra dose in the afternoon as well as 'nurofen' capsules when the need2P bothers me.

Your GP was out of order to take you off something that worked.  VA treatment is usually for Life.  Do read 'Me and My Menopausal Vagina' available on Amazon. Written by a member of MM.