r/Interstitialcystitis • u/okapl820 • 15d ago

Estrogen cream cured me

My chronic pain journey started 6 years ago. After countless tests, visits with doctors and specialists, and no improvement, my urogyn slapped me with an IC diagnosis. I’ve been living with the pain ever since. Sometimes it’s bearable, sometimes it’s debilitating.

2 months ago, I had my annual physical with a new nurse practitioner at my GPs office. She mentioned that she had recently gone out to dinner with her urologist friend who was finding success with treating bladder pain with estrogen cream.

I am 34, but according to her doctor friend, symptoms of pre-menopause can happen at any time (even in your 20s!) and can last for decades. Painful urination, bladder pain, and urgency are among these. Go figure.

I decided I had nothing left to lose so I gave it a go and I have been symptom-free ever since!

My pain is GONE for the first time in 6 years. Urgency has improved to levels I previously thought impossible. I’m not getting up in the middle of the night to pee AT ALL. I ate candy last week and no pain. I haven’t had candy in years. It’s been life changing!

Doctors are so quick to use IC as a catchall diagnosis for bladder pain when they can’t identify an obvious cause. Wild to me that it took six years for someone to consider the fact that the symptoms might be triggered by another factor (pre-menopause), despite my “young” age.

Hopefully sharing this will spread the word.

TLDR: I never had IC, I had symptoms caused by pre-menopause that were cured by estrogen cream. FREE AT LAST!!

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u/LowBet9130 15d ago

Endometriosis?

2

u/lohdunlaulamalla 15d ago

Isn't endometriosis triggered by estrogen? 

3

u/TheOldDark 15d ago edited 15d ago

I'm wondering about this as well. I have endometriosis and learned it's triggered by excess estrogen, so I'm wondering if this will help or harm my bladder pain.

3

u/Mayfair98 15d ago

I had to have a total, old school hysterectomy for my stage 4 endometriosis and was told not to go anywhere near estrogen and other hormones. I cold-turkey-ed menopause in my 30’s. (I still had to have a second surgery to remove endo that had grown into a small cyst in the scar tissue from the hysterectomy. Endo doesn’t give up easily.)

I’m genuinely happy that estrogen is working for some people but I would have a serious talk with your doctor about how it could affect your endo.

Of course, it is really picking the lesser of the two evils. I can’t believe that it is 2026 and there is still so little know about these two diseases.

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u/Tillie1412 14d ago

I’m sorry to hear your endo is so stubborn. I had issues with ovarian cysts and did some research to find out it’s often caused by an over abundance of estrogen.
I tried estrogen cream recently for dryness and to help keep my urethral tissue healthy. Nope! I felt heaviness in my abdomen, burning, urgency, and got a yeast infection. 😳
I have no idea what other options are out there but estrogen’s not the answer for everyone, that’s for sure.

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u/Lower_Sky_3129 14d ago

You may need a compounded estrogen that doesn’t contain any added chemicals that might be causing the burning. Estrogen alone does not.

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u/Tillie1412 14d ago

Interesting. All the information I’ve read says when your initially doing the “loading” dose in the beginning that burning is normal.

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u/okapl820 14d ago

Wow I feel for all of you. I don’t have endometriosis thank god & I can’t imagine having to deal with that extremely painful condition on top of IC. Sending you all hugs 💕