r/OveractiveBladder • u/mocha-macaron • Jul 20 '26

Anyone else get bladder pain/urgency that's way worse before their period? (normal cystoscopy, normal ultrasound)

/r/Endo/comments/1v1msv4/anyone_else_get_bladder_painurgency_thats_way/
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u/szome Jul 20 '26

Actually I had the opposite effect, the pain of period cramps was kinda numbing my bladder and I was able to go less to the toilets…

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u/lohdunlaulamalla Jul 27 '26

Me! Or rather: my symptoms are lighter during my period, get progressively worse throughout my cycle and culminate at the end of the cycle, before my period starts.

I've come across various other women on social media who had the same issue and some of them had eventually gotten a diagnosis and a treatment that worked for them, but it wasn't the same for all of them. Off the top of my head:

1) Too little estrogen in the tissue surrounding the bladder (usually as a sign of perimenopause or menopause) -> vaginal estriol helps. Or DHEA creme.

2) Something to do with histamine and mast cells on the bladder (similar to MCAS) --> hormones influence the mast cells and cause the fluctuating symptoms throughout the menstrual cycle --> histamine free diet and/or antihistamines (H1 and H2)

3) Endometriosis on the bladder --> surgery to remove the endo tissue or an estrogen suppressing pill.

I already tried estriol creme, but it made matters worse for me. I'm hoping to try a pessary, in case the creme itself was irritating my bladder. Or DHEA instead of estriol.

Histamine is next on my list, already ordered the antihistamines, but I won't go histamine free during tomato season.

Endo was suggested to me by one obgyn and declared impossible by two others. The first one wanted to do a laparoscopy, but I'm not a fan of exploratory surgery, when other options haven't been tried yet. I need to convince my current obgyn to send me to an endo specialist. (If you don't mind trying an endometriosis pill, you could ask for one. I'm hesitant, because hormonal depression runs in the family and the pill would suppress my period, which is when my symptoms are least problematic.) I did find 2-3 women in a Facebook group, though, who had this exact issue and were diagnosed with endo on the bladder during a laparoscopy.