Herpetic Urethritis

Hi,
About 2 mos ago I felt the symptoms of a uti coming on, i went to the doctor and without doing a culture, prescribed me cipro to take for 3 days. I felt better the second day but the day after the antibiotics were finished, i started to feel symptoms again. Doctor then gave me 5 days of cipro. Same thing happen, felt better and then after course of antibiotics, day later I felt symptoms again. This time doctor gave me 10 days of antibiotics but symptoms never went away. They tried culture again but because of antibiotics (we are guessing) nothing came back. Went to Urologist who thought i either have IC (interstitial cystitis) or that my bladder and urethra was just inflamed from infection. He did a renal ultrasound to make sure nothing else is going on and plans to do a cystoscopy if I am not better by middle of January. My regular doctor wanted to do a physical to see if anything else was going on. When he did, he tested me for STD's and it came positive for herpes. I was shocked as I have been with the same person (my husband) for 4 years and have 1 child. Ive never had any symptoms and I could have sworn they tested me during my prenatal visits. Anyway, doctor put me on 90 days of valtrex and said my symptoms should clear up within a week. He thought I was having an outbreak on the inside of my bladder/urethra. My question is, is it possible to have an outbreak and not exhibit any symptoms on the outside of my body? If it is an outbreak, would it have lasted 2 mos? And if the answer to both of these questions is yes, then how soon would the medicine kick in? The symptoms i am experiencing are nothing like what I read online. Basically what happens is my bladder/urethra feels sore. It tends to feel much better when it is full so I drink as much water as I can. When I uriniate, a burning, throbbing sensation will take place in my urethra about 5 minutes AFTER I urinate. It does not hurt or burn to urinate at all. Then depending on how quickly I can get my bladder full, symptoms subside to just a slight discomfort till I urinate again. Anybody have any idea whats going on??

[gracefromHHP]

since this would be a recurrence of herpes, it would not cause symptoms like this for 2 months.  also antibiotics would not make herpes symptoms better.

if you can get your blood test results, I can better help you. all you need to do is post the actual numeric results - e.g. hsv1 igg 7.9 and hsv2 igg 1.2 or whatever they are. that way we can be sure you were properly tested and see if you need additional confirmatory testing or not.

viral uti's can cause symptoms like this. also estrogen deficiences can too. just things to think about for your follow up with your providers.

grace

[nf511]

Hi! THank you for your response! Ok, when the doctor told me about having herpes I was so shocked that I could barely focus on details. I do know however he said I have hsv 2 and the number I saw was 4.5 which is pretty high right? Just doesn't make sense but is of course possible. My husband went to get tested yesterday. We are waiting on his results. There was a small relief when he told me they has found the cause of the pain if been experiencing but here we are now a little over a week later and there has been no change :(
As for estrogen deficiency, could that be because I am breastfeeding? Is there a test they can do for that? And I've never heard of a viral uti, how would I know if I had that??
Thanks for your help!!!

[gracefromHHP]

usually viral uti's are ruled out by process of elimination. typically by the time testing gets to the point of considering a viral uti, it's too late to do any testing for it.  

blood testing for estrogen deficiencies is of limited value prior to menopause unfortunately. you can have a decrease in estrogen available to the genital area without being reflected in blood estrogen levels.  urinary spasms are a symptom of the low estrogen and they will feel very similar to an uti.  being referred to an urogynecologist might be useful if one is in your area.  

once hubby gets his results back, we can figure out when to get confirmatory testing for you since you haven't had obvious lesions to culture.

[wiley66]

Hello -

I wanted to let you know that at 46 years old, I've been having UTI type pain before my periods - about a week before or so. Some months is not too bad and other months it drives me crazy, but it usually relents after menses. What has helped meis drinking 3 tbl spoons of organic apple cider vinegar with 1/4 teaspoon or so of baking soda and some sweetener of some type. It sort of tastes like a cream soda as it fizzes up a little. It always seems to give me relief. But I did a search on the internet and have heard of this happening - this sort of pain due to changing hormonal levels.