Hi,

I've been suffering from an overactive bladder for about 18 years now, so I can relate to all the ladies out there who get the urgent desire to pee and that they get sensations inside the bladder like they have to pee even though there isn't much pee in there.

The problem I started having recently (I'm 47 years and in peri) is that at night (mainly early hours of the morning) when I get up to pee my bladder muscles will interrupt the flow and suddenly I cannot pee. I know there is still some liquid inside the bladder but it doesn't want to come out. So I have to get up and wait a few minutes and try again and some will come out, but not much, and this goes on until it may take 4 or 5 goes before all the pee is out. Of course, by that time I am fully awake and it's difficult to fall back asleep.

I am very worried about this. I found on the internet that with age and hormones incomplete voiding can be a problem, but this hardly makes me feel any better as no one seems to have an solution as to what can be done about it.

Does anyone out there have nightime voiding problems?

HI Rosepurple,

Yes, I do. In fact, i have this problem during the day too, it's acting up again now, it comes and goes.
You are describing me! I have exactly the same problem. Isn't this awful? I saw your other post about this, and I meant to chime in, and I got distrated by another post ... so when I saw this one here, I figured i'd respond here instead, I do hope you see this. I've heard that these bladder problems are common during peri, and menopause, but this is a very very hard symptom to live with... you feel like you always have to "go". You mentioned you'd dealt with this for 18 yrs. ..... a friend of mine has had this as well, for about 20 yrs. so, I know it's maddening, and now.....i have joined the happy club of bladder insanity! Mine seems to come and go, like I mentioned, and it seems to be worse close to my period, but that doesn't have to always be the case. I also notice, it can start up when i drink water! Yeah, this is great ... so, the only water I can drink, are the vitamin waters, they don't aggravate it. This thing about not being able to sleep is horrible, and I have to lay in a certain position for it not to make me feel like screaming! It feels like there is liquid in the urethra, but there isnt'! So, i'm up and down all night, and my sleep, like yours, is something from the outer limits. I have to end up taking a xanax, so i can sleep.

Rose ..... there has to be some other solution! I"m going to do a search on natural alternatives for this, i'm very much into that anyway, and if I find one, i will either PM you, or leave anohter post here ....

Hi Mydarling

Great to hear from you although the circumstances in which we find ourselves isn't great. I'm also looking at natural alternatives and working with a naturopath who is giving me herbs to balance my hormones and to take away inflammation in the bladder; he feels there is inflammation in there that gives us sensations like we have to pee all the time and which make the pelvic floor muscles spasm. On the other hand, someone told me to do a search on the internet on "pelvic floor muscle spasm" and I found a condition called pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and that also describes pretty much what we feel. I have tracked down a doctor here in Australia who specialises in treating this kind of condition for women who suffer from vulvodynia (which is when their vaginal muscles spasm and they find sex excrutiatingly painful); now even though this doesn't happen to me, it is the same set of muscles involved - those pesky pelvic floor muscles . I rang the doctor and discussed my problem briefly over the phone and he said that although I don't have vulvodynia we are talking about the same set of muscles and that he's also worked with women who have bladder problems, so I made an appointment to see him in September. How he works is with something called myofascial therapy (or something like that), but I think what they do is they massage certain trigger points in the pelvic area which in turn will have an effect on the nerves and muscles in that area and hopefully this will improve the condition.

The third approach I am taking, aside from the naturopath and the myofascial guy, is that I will be seeing a doctor who works with bioidentical hormones, because lack of estrogen can also have this effect on the bladder. I have read that sometimes putting a bit of estrogen cream in the urethral area is all it takes to improve the condition, but this doesn't work with all women.

At least now I have 3 different options; and the last resort is going to a gyno/urologist, but I'm saving that as a last resort because they make you go through all sorts of horrible tests and they look at more conventional methods of treating the bladder and they don't necessarily take the hormonal/menopausal approach. I had a cystoscopy once, a long time ago, and if I can avoid one I will at all costs. Needless to say, when I did have the cystoscopy (14 years ago) I was having similar symptoms to the ones I have now and the specialist never found anything wrong with me except a little bit of inflammation around the detrusor muscle; which brings us back to the natural approach of taking herbs that will both calm the bladder muscles and get rid of inflammation. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is sooooooooooooooo frustrating!

Yesterday I had a perfect day, by the way: no bladder sensations day or night, no feelings of having to go, no muscle spasms....nothing! Then this morning I wake up with that sensation of having to go and yet I have very little liquid in there. God, will I survive this? Perhaps we should start a new thread called: MAD BLADDERS INCORPORATED. You know that I started the thread on PALPERS CLUB INCORPORATED for those of us who were getting heart palps This could become my next thread.

Lastly, I read that for pelvic floor spasms the best thing is to sit in a bath every day so that the warm water relaxes your muscles and this will make it possible to go a lot more easily. A doctor I read about said after a few weeks of doing this once a day the muscles would relax. I am not one for baths, but I heat up a gel pack I have and while I'm on the computer I sit on it and this warms my cockles and muscles and relaxes the pelvic floor. I also take magnesium phosphate tissue salts, which are said to be fantastic for muscle spasm and to keep you from becoming constipated. The main thing, is never to strain the muscles. If you get stuck, don't strain. Get up off the toilet and walk for a few minutes around the room and then come back, relax and wait for it to come. If you strain it's the worst thing you can do.

Phew! Well, let me know what you think of my approaches. I am hoping desperately that something will work to make things better.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Rosepurple

Rosepurple:

Did you start that thread (Mad Bladders Incorporated)! I want to join in! Estrogen does help. So does giving up coffee. Wish I could feel 100% again though.

Hi. My name is Mary Biederstadt. I'm new here, just reading some of the posts. I replied on another thread about peeing in your pants, and wondered if what happened to me might help you. It's worth a try!

I'm looking for info about pelvic prolapse, among other health concerns. I've been studying about our psoas muscles. I figured out how to stretch my psoas. After a few days of stretching them along with the piriformis muscles, I realized that I wasn't having incontinence anymore. I still have a problem sometimes with a very painful pinching sensation when I first start to pee, so I continue to do research, and do the stretches.

I hope it's OK to post a link to my blog. There's lots of info there about female and some of male problems.

www.mystretchedbody.blogspot.com

Mary

try a chiropractor. They can "break" the tension in the muscles and it helps.

I'm having a similar problem with urinating and also with bowel movements, along with some pretty awful pelvic pain. I thought I was just constipated. But I did a little research and found something called "pelvic floor spasms". Fit my situation pretty well, so I think I might have a problem with it. I've posted this in a couple of other threads as well as there seems to be lots of women having the same problem.

Hi all,

I did start this thread because I thought I was going mad with new bladder symptoms, but since then I think I narrowed it down to what is happening and I'm not so sure this is part of meno, although fluctuating hormones always make things worse.

These are my current symptoms:

Urinary frequency due to bladder nerve irritation (which I mainly feel on the right side of my bladder)
Pelvic floor spasms around genital area
Pelvic pain from muscle spasm that feels like very tired pelvic floor muscles or just achy, but also this seems to be irritating that nerve inside the bladder (which I believe is called the pudendal nerve) and this gives me a horrible sensation like I have to pee even though I don't. Also, it limits the amount I can hold in my bladder because I pee just to get relief from this irritation
Genital hyper-arousal (this is a terrible feeling that feels like an uncomfortable sexual arousal of the muscles. It is horrible!)

I've been doing a lot of research and have found that pelvic floor dysfunction (which sometimes can impinge on the pudendal nerve) really fits in with my symptoms. I am now going to a physiotherapist and an osteopath to get them to work on my pelvic floor muscles and do myofascial trigger point release, but I also found a great book written by a therapist in New York, who specialises in this field, and the book explains what is going on and gives one a home program of exercises, massage, etc, to work through this horrible condition. Going a few times to a therapist won't do it; we also have to work hard.

The book is called: Heal Pelvic Pain by Amy Stein, M.P.T

I've done so much research in the past couple of months, but I have to tell you, this book is the best. I have now started the home program, but it's too early to tell as I've only been doing it for a week.

Meanwhile, I haven't had any help from the medical profession - my GP wanted to send me to a urologist and that would have meant invasive tests, which I am trying to avoid. I did have a cystoscopy in 1995 (which was horrible) and they never found anything wrong with me and they basically told me I had to retrain my bladder to hold more and learn to live with it. Nice

Just so you know - I have suffered from the right sided nerve sensation since 1990, but it was never this bad and it never gave me all the other symptoms I mentioned above. So I think over time I have developed pelvic floor dysfunction due to unconsciously tensing my pelvic floor muscles due to the nerve sensation and also due to stress. Stress, apparently, is one of the biggest enemies for this condition. So meditation and relaxation are a must, but try to relax when the symptoms are so bad! I'm working on this now and have good and bad days. On a bad day I can't even go for a walk because moving about makes that right sided nerve even more irritated. The same with sitting down.

So, while I don't have pain per se, I have irritation which is horrible. However, some women have horrid pain in their bowel, bladder or genitals. It's a really horrible condition and I urge everyone to get this book and read it. It will open your eyes to this condition and you will end up knowing more than your urologist or gynacologist.

If any of you live in NY, you're lucky because you can go and see Amy Stein for treatment, but the book is the next best thing.

Cheers, Sylvia

I hope we all heal!

Yep this is EXACTLY what I was talking about. I first looked it up back in July when I had the most shockingly horrible pain of my life in my lower abdomen. I was in the restroom of a hospital (mom was having shoulder surgery at the time). The pain was so bad I was gripping the walls of the bathroom stall and in tears saying "God PLEASE make it stop!". It lasted about 20 minutes, and I was literally seconds away from calling a doctor, and then it went away like I had never had it. I have had less intense bouts with it before and after then. Even then the pain is severe enough that I can't walk upright, but have to bend at the waist. I've asked my doctor about it, and of course she says it's gas.

Thank you so much for posting your info about the book. I WILL look for it.