Pelvic floor exercises

Well, it depends on what is causing your irritable bladder. However, pelvic floor exercises are always a good idea, and we should all be doing them regularly. They will help to a certain extent.

Probes (or cones / kegel balls) give useful feedback, but if you can manage without them, given your irritable bladder, I would try.
Have you done them before, and do you know how they should feel? If so, just start! 2 fingers in your vagina will give you some feedback.
You could also consider a specialist physio - you can find one at www.csp.org.uk/public-patient/find-physiotherapist/physio2u.
For myself, I work better with a person rather than using a probe, but that is very individual.

Also, I assume that this has been checked, but are you bowels working regularly? Constipation can cause an 'irritable bladder'.

Constipation is an intermittent problem but the urinary issue is beginning to affect my life. The area becomes very painful when the ladder is spilling up (tmi!). I am at my wits end hence the question. Apparently it is incurable. Do I have twenty or so years of pain?

So sorry you are going through this, but I really don't know. This is my advice:
1. Simple pelvic floor exercises will only help, but may not by themselves solve your problem
2. Only use probes under supervision (this doesn't apply to everyone, but I think you need to be careful)
3. Talk to whichever professional you are seeing about the effect this is having, and ask them these questions.
4. Get a referral to a specialist physio - they usually describe themselves as 'women's health' . Availability varies - in our area we can self-refer on the NHS, in others you have to ask the GP. If you can afford it, you may consider a private consultation - see above for proper link.
Physios can advise not only on doing the pelvic floor exercises, but can make an assessment and suggestions.

Good luck

Are you drinking plenty, SallyWally?

It sounds daft, but it's actually better to have a bladder full of almost dilute urine than it is to have just a small amount of strong urine, which then often doesnt get fully voided, and irritates the bladder further.

Have you tried taking D-Mannose SallyWally ?

I bought one, I do not have any problems yet but use intermittently to hopefully stop future weakness.

Many good reviews and was not uncomfortable to use. I researched quite a bit before buying and this was recommended by health professionals as being more use than exercising without.

I got one to try to deal with stress incontinence, but I'm not sure how much it helped, as every time I seemed to improve a bit, I would get a cold with a persistent cough and I would be back to square one! I had gone to physio, who had lend me a gadget and recommended. However, reading the information booklet, I'm not sure that this type would help OP, as sometimes apparently it can irritable bladder, which is different from stress incontinence, worse.

You really need to be properly assessed before starting exercises. Pain is usually because the pelvic floor muscles are too tense and exercising to make them tighter will make the pain worse

Thanks. My GP confirmed weak pelvic floor. I was reading about professor malone-now sadly now RIP. who devoted his life research on cystitis. Too complicated to explain on here, but worth reading his conclusions. He said the conventional UTI bugs don’t show on the usual hospital lab tests and in his words are ‘not fit for purpose’ and that results come back as showing no infection despite women being in intense pain. He recommended low dose long term antibiotics (which did not cause resistance to the medication). Thanks for all your replies. I do take mannose btw not sure if it helps or not. The symptoms are intermittent. Today I feel ok, last week I was in agony.

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Sounds strenuous! Bump

Just bumping this up

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Because

Have you asked your doctor for an ultra sound inspection of your urinary tract? Painless and not invasive, and it gives good feedback of what's going on.
I think there's a self help group on Facebook, I'll post the link if I can find it.

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I've never tried pelvic floor exercises, I'm not sure I'd know quite how to do it.

My Gp sent me to a Gynae physiotherapist for assessment .
I had several weeks of treatment with a probe that was attached to a computer programme so you see what was happening on screen . It was then suggested to buy my own probe to carry on at home . Hope this helps .

Hi my daughter had this problem and eventually saw Prof Malones son at private London clinic.She was on long term antibiotics but also on Hiprex with Vit C. It took a while but she is much improved. She said the cystitis was worse than labour! It’s not like normal cystitis. There is a London hospital I think the Whitechapel but I think you have to get referral from another consultant. Best of luck

You need a referral to a urologist before anything else. You should not be having any bladder pain. Sounds like something else is going on.

I had great results seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist for bladder control issues.

I bought an exerciser that had good reviews as I thought it would be a good idea to try it. Can I just say it’s very important to start gently on a low setting. I started on a higher setting than recommended as I wanted quick results. Mistake! For days afterwards I had pain in muscles that I didn’t even know I had!