constant infections after sex..HELP! - Urology Message Board

potato59 · 06-25-2001, 10:45 PM

I am constantly getting urinary trac and kidney infections after sex, no matter how well my hygiene is or how much i urinate after sex...this is getting to be a real problem, and i am just newly married a year. I am now beginning to say no to sex for fear i will get another one of those awful urinary/kidney infections...I drink cranberry juice, however i get so sick to my stomach after one glass, it irritates my stomach badly (i buy the health store brand with no sugar)...Are there any herbs, natural remedies or something i can do to keep getting this? thanks

Speedgal · 06-26-2001, 04:33 AM

I presume you are female. And yes, that's why its called honeymoon cystitis. I'm sure there's heaps on the net about it. Are you getting it cultured each time to make sure it is an infection? I went through this for over two years - I know how you feel. It often gets to the point where you get the symptoms but there's no infection so that needs checking. There's several things that you can do. Obviously you're doing the peeing before and after sex, wiping from from to back and so on. I never found they helped. In the end I had what's called a urethral dilation - I had it done under general but that may have changed - its day surgery. It fixed mine.

I believe another alternative is to give you a low dose antibiotic to take after sex - just a one off. But that's not really a long term solution. I can understand how you are beginning to feel about sex. Anyway, those are my experiences - I hope you sort something out, its pretty devastating - my infections used to hit like a sledgehammer - by 8:30 in the morning I would know I had it and without antibiotics that very day I would be bleeding into my bladder - not nice. Good luck.

potato59 · 06-26-2001, 09:29 PM

speedgal, may i ask you to share your "dilation" surgery? I am interested in this...what does it do in the long run? How do they perform this? thanks

Speedgal · 06-27-2001, 03:58 AM

The dilation thing is very simple - they just stick something up your urethra to dilate/stretch it. I gather the theory is to sort of iron out any nooks and crannies that might be holding any urine after you urinate but also to enlarge it a bit so you pee better. I guess the thinking is that if the urethra isn't an even diameter, or is a bit small, then it can cause problems. That is my laymans interpretation.

As I said it was day surgery for me - about 20 odd years ago - I'm sure they may have changed the procedure by now! But it was no big deal at all, just a bit of stinging in the immediate period after the "surgery".

And it seemed to do the trick which was the best part!

sashalynn · 07-03-2001, 08:51 PM

I was getting up to 12 infections a month, until it was discovered I had Interstitial Cystitis. It has to do with the lining of your bladder wall being scared and it's quite possible to have this if you're getting infection after infection. I had a sulfer treatment put into my bladder once a week for 6 weeks. It clears it up for almost a year, but the drawback...it secretes out of your body, so I took a day off work due to the odour it omits. I had the stretching of my bladder done too, but this sulphur treatment is top notch!