Urethral Irritation

July 22, 2007

Hi there,

Your advice would be appreciated! I know this is long but bear with me :0) there

is a point at the end of this...

I've got gastritus and am a long-term irritable bowel sufferer who has reflux. I

also have mild epilepsy, polycystic ovaries and vitiligo.

Bit of a raw deal! Anyway,

I consume no coffee, cigarettes fizzy, capsicum, tomato, citrus, alcohol,

vinegar, mustard, garlic, onion or chilli (of course, no meat, dairy or any

animal product). Additionally I'm intolerant to soy but still eat it sometimes

(as long as I eat salad with it it's not as bad, usually it gives me tremors). I

do eat wheat/gluten but I try to limit it as much as possible. It's a bit of a

work in progress with giving up wheat as soon as possible.

Yet still I am having severe reflux & gastric pain so have recently also given

up all chocolate (which is basically the worst thing you can eat with reflux as

it relaxes the valve at the top of the tummy when dopamine is released and it

has lots of fat). So that's good! It took 4 days to get over the withdrawls but

it's now done and it's the last " vice " I have.

I'm also cutting down the fat to lose weight as I have polycystic ovaries and

would like to improve my fertility and have a child.

Urethral irritation. That's the latest joy. No UTI according to the Dr but it

feels as though I have one and it's horrible and re-occurring. My diet has

reduced substantially in acidity so that may be part of it, also I've been

drinking apple juice a lot. When I was reluctantly taking medication for this

condition I noticed that certain drugs reliably caused this painful urethral

irritation and others did not. I am now off the meds for a number of reasons and

started drinking apple juice because I'd read that apple helps reduce acidity in

the stomach... I'm not sure that it does in fact do this but did notice that the

urethral irritation has returned. Maybe it's related to the apple juice?

Here's my question. Does anyone else have any experience with this? I met a girl

who had UTIs and was hospitalised by them after becoming vegan, I'm worried, is

my veganism causing this? Is it apple juice? Is it just the fact that I've given

up chocolate and that's spun my body into an alkaline state and it needs to

rebalance? I never had UTIs or this pain before being vegan. I've been vegan for

1.3 years now. I also met a girl who was vegan who said she could no longer be

so because of calcification in the urethra (quite rare).

As you all know having a grossly sensitive tummy means that there are no days

off from your strict diet and I'm happy to do what I need to.

I mean it could be any of these things but I'm just wondering who of the ladies

out there have any information, similar experiences or suggestions to offer!

Obviously drinking cranberry juice or anything to increase the acidity of my

body is NOT an option because increasing the acidity will aggravate the reflux

and that's totally undesirable. I feel a bit trapped! Damned if you do, damned

if you don't kinda thing.

Cheers and hi! I'm new here!

Jessie from NZ

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July 23, 2007

Hi Jessie;

Do you drink LOTS of plain water daily? (seriously, at least 8 full cups!) ...

and void your bladder AFTER intercourse?

" Honey moon " UTI is called that because it is a common complaint when women are

first sexually active, but can affect sexually active women at any time in their

lives. I had frequent UTI until I started taking those precautions.

Apparently, intercourse commonly forces pathogens up a woman's urinary tract,

which voiding the bladder flushes out. That's why you want to do it soon AFTER

sex, within the first couple of hours after. Waiting until the next morning is

WAY too long. That has given the pathogens time to set up shop in the urinary

tract.

I also find that avoiding salt helps me urinary tract work better. I have no

idea why this seems to be so, but it does.

Good luck!

Deborah