<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> The scores of replies I received are wide and varied with some very excellent information. Thank you to those of you who replied. My last urine test showed signs of infection so I am again on an antibiotic which will probably cause a yeast infection. A vicious cycle! Hopefully we will all get that right one day. I have had a hysterecomy so no uterus, but do possibly need to consider hormone balance since I have been through menopause. RESPONSES: found out that I was Celiac and when my intestines are reacting to gluten they become inflamed and push down on my uterus, which of course pushes down on my bladder, etc. The only thing I find that works is strict diet of no gluten and antiinflamatories when it does act up. try giving up ALL dairy. That feeling of pressure on the bladder is sometimes a symptom of those who are intolerant of casein - many celiacs are also lactose intolerate have you been checked for diabeties? it's on the same gene strand. assume that you have had a plain basic urinalysis. I think you should go ahead and get the other testing done too. My personal experience with similar problems led to some weird answers. I get a lot of bladder pain and pressure from eating red apples or drinking Barnie's coffee. Very strange, I never heard of anything like that, but when I cut those two out of my diet, I was in complete relief. get bouts of frequent urination from time to time. I have tried the Detrol LA too, and it doesn't really help. I've noticed recently that sometimes the flare-ups come after a gluten ingestion. If I feel a flare- up coming on, I try to drink A LOT of cranberry juice (maybe as much as a gallon in a day) and within a day it stops. I believe it has to do with a PH imbalance. I assume diabetes has already been ruled out? I had the same symptoms as you last fall. I was going to the bathroom about 40 - 60 times a day (I kept a log for him). I went to a Dallas Urologist and he told me he thought I had Interstitial Cystitis (CC). He put me in for day surgery and did a Cystoscopy to check for tumors and also stretched my urethra. He found I had CC - there is no cure - he wanted to put me on Detrol, but I have Fibromyalgia and Arthrisit and feel I already take too many medications. He suggested taking Prelief (over the counter) medication which is prescribed for many things. He said I can safely take 40 a day but I only take about 4 - 6 and some days not any. It's really helped (as did the Cystoscopy). My symptoms have just about completely disappeared. There is a lot of information on the internet about Cystitis. I experienced this pressure and urge ONLY when I was on anti-depressant medicines about seven years ago. None of them helped the depression, I ended up trying five medicines in all...ALL of them caused this horrible pressure and constant urge you describe. I get like that sometimes when my weight is dropping. It goes away when my weight is stable or increasing. WHAT ARE YOUR LABS SAYING ABOUT YOUR KIDNEYS? I think I would follow medical advice and get the CT scan and colonoscopy. I really do not mean this to sound rude, but the people on the list cannot diagnose you with any certainty. All they can do is guess. Of course you must rule out all the scary causes with colonoscopy and CT scan. If they get ruled out you might look at how much caffeine you take in. . There are several other bladder irritants, I don't know what they are though. menopause sometimes increases bladder pressure. That kind of pressure can be relieved with hrt, hormone replacement therapy. Of course none of this is meant to be medical advice. Do some reading on Interstitial Cystitis. It could be a mild case of it. I don't mean to scare you. I just thought I should write because I have had two bladder tumors that I am sure were caused by chronic yeast problems. Other than that, I don't know if I had any of the same symptoms that you described. My problem was definitely caused by yeast although none of my doctors would take me seriously. Luckily, my primary doctor was willing to let me have 5 doses of diflucan before she did all of the tests for my other symtpoms which were very numerous and strange. I also had to go on a strict diet for candida. It took me 9 weeks to get better and I'm still improving after 6 months. In my case, I have also been taking probiotics for several years. The reason I got a systemic yeast problem was because I was consuming hidden sources of gluten and was in denial. Now I have to be so strict with my diet that I have to make most of my food myself! I have had multiple UTI's that showed a "large" amount of blood in the urine. I have been on most anti-biotics, but it seems as soon as I get off them I get another infection. I went to a different urologist after the first one put me on Elmiron and said the only other thing was to have med put in the bladder. It sounded simple, but once I started to research it, I found that it was very painful and only effective in half of the patients. The new urologist said that the blood was not from infection. He did a cystoscopy and measured my bladder capacity in his office. He then prescribed the Detrol (I hate it) along with Elavil (he says they don't know why it works but it does). This routine has worked for two months, but something new is irritating my bladder - I had more than 15 trips to the bathroom from 9-1 a.m. this morning. I know that carbonated drinks and allergy/decongestant tabs increase the irritability. I had reduced the dose of Elavil because it made me so sleepy -duhh! He also Rx'd an Estrogen Creme - really messy! Has your doctor mentioned Interstitial Cystitis (an auto-immune disease?) when I went off diary and sugar, one of them removed the frequent urination and bladder pain completely. Now I have to go every 3-4 hours or so. Because of the possibility of other things causing bladder pressure, think your idea of a CT scan or ultrasound of your pelvic region would probably still be a really, really good idea I am one of those people with chronic vaginal yeast infection, which I don't seem to be able to eliminate. I ask every doctor I encounter, no matter what his/her field. Although I've been told there is no known connection with celiac, I'm inclined to wonder. I also have a lot of bladder pressure and urinate frequently. I've often throught that was associated with pressure from my bowels, which in my case I think it is, and that is in turn affected by how I digest my food. (Before I was diagnosed with celiac I did not have the constant bowel pressure and small bowel movements.) Sometimes I have 6 or 8 small bowel movements a day. I, too, reccomend you go ahead with the CT scan and colonoscopy; why should you continue to suffer when a proper diagnosis and relief may be just around the corner. I recently underwent a colonoscopy for unrelieved celiac symptoms, inspite of 3 years of careful gf diet, and was diagnosed with microscopic colonitis. I am being treated with asacol and have experienced tremendous improvement. The prep for the colonoscopy isn't particularly fun (drinking nasty stuff which caused cleansing diarrhea), but the procedure is painless. You fall asleep and wake up, all done! As a long-time sufferer of bladder infections, I think bladder pain is one of the worst discomforts one can experience; I hope they figure out you problem and fix you up soon. I also suffer from chronic yeast problems from "one end to the other". I haven't found any good probiotics, would you share your brand? D-Mannose as a remedy for urinary tract, kidney and bladder infections: (I learned that D-Mannose treats e-coli which my urine culture showed were norma!) I had to follow a very basic diet for candidiasis. I have been dealing with this for years, so I have my own theories about what worked for me. The very basic diet was no sugar, alcohol, caffeine, fruit, rice, corn, potatoes, or dairy. The main things I had to avoid all the time were alcohol, caffeine, fruit and dairy. I think a little sugar and yeast are OK, but most people would not agree. I am sure I had systemic yeast. My symptoms included joint pain, back pain, muscle pain, chest pains and I had myserious lumps in several places on my body. They were checked by a specialist who said they were fat deposits, but now they are monstly gone! I don't know if yeast is your problem because it can do alot of strange things. Anway, I am a lot better. I am still struggling with finding things to eat. It is so hard! I am strict now. I also avoid foods with citric acid, canola oil and annatto. Maybe you will be lucky and will not have to be that strict. I went through this prior to becoming GF, which definitely helped. I also had a bulging disk in my low back that was contributing to the problem. After chiropractic treatments for the bulging disk and giving my body enough time to heal, the urinary problems went away until menopause. I had a year-long bout with bacterial vaginosis, a bacterial infection of the vagina, which caused irritation of the whole area: vagina, urethra, bladder. My doctor said that lack of vaginal lubrication due to low estrogen level (vaginal atrophy) allowed bacteria to embed itself in the vaginal wall and spread to the bladder and urethra. A couple rounds of antibiotics and Diflucan (100mg per day for 4 days instead of the "one- shot" Diflucan pill) and Monistat finally knocked out the bacterial infection and the subsequent yeast infection. I'm also taking Estrace and using a progesterone cream to alleviate the vaginal atrophy so the problem doesn't return. So there are at least three things to consider: getting gluten from an unknown source, low-back problems, and hormonal problems. Have you had your doctor check to see if your uterus is pressing on your bladder? I had fibroids which pressed on my bladder and made it feel as if I needed to urinate but couldn't. I had a tipped uterus and had to have a hysterectomy to fix my problem. My uterus was stopping the urine and I required a catheter (ouch!) in order to empty my bladder. A bit different from your problem but maybe a clue for you! Usually, bladder urgency workups are first investigated by urodynamic studies - not CTs. I can't comment on your case but it does seem that they have skipped a step. (Failed to mention that my urologist did a cysoctomy and everything seemed normal.) I just found out that the culture from my last UTI was Enterococcus, an antibiotic resistant bacteria. I have started to research it, but most of the info is technical and written for medical professionals Ginger Conner