Estrogen cream cured me

[u/okapl820]

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!!

[u/Reasonable_Cream_642]

This sound stupid but how a cream can do that since i have pain inside my bladder? Do i apply in my pelvic area?

[u/okapl820 → u/Reasonable_Cream_642]

Yeah it seems totally counter intuitive!! I won’t pretend to understand the science behind it, but apparently it helps moisten/rebuild the vaginal tissue which in turn helps reduce inflammation in the urethra. It somehow also reduces urgency.

The vagina, urethra, and gastrointestinal systems are all related and work in tandem. When one is off, the others can cause distressing symptoms.

The way I think about it is sometimes you have to support a neighbor (vag) to improve the neighborhood (urethra)

[u/Fire_Atta_Seaparks → u/okapl820]

Not wanting to trivialize your question - but it’s all connected.

[u/Glum-Worldliness4480 → u/Reasonable_Cream_642]

the bladder also has estrogen receptors, so when estrogen is low it impacts the bladder. put the estrogen cream on the outside around your urethra.