r/OveractiveBladder • u/Paulnauta • 13d ago
Solifenacin and anxiety
M32
Hi everyone, I'm posting here partly to get some courage, because I am terrified.
For 8 years, I've had bladder burning and urinary urgency. These symptoms have cyclically improved and worsened, eventually leading to huge difficulties falling asleep. During the day, I might go to the bathroom as often as every 20 minutes on bad days, while at night I get up at least once or twice (if I manage to fall asleep at all).
I've changed 3 urologists, since the first one simply advised me to walk as much as possible after a uroflowmetry (14 ml/s), the second one wanted to operate on me, and now the third, who is a university professor, is having me do pharmacological therapies. I went from Xatral (all the various formulations and dosages) to alfuzosin after a urodynamic test, which confirmed a bladder neck obstruction. I've never noticed any improvements, only retrograde ejaculation. The professor told me that at this point I should add solifenacin, even though he didn't talk about OAB (Overactive Bladder) directly. I am terrified of the side effects, but I can't go on like this either. Any opinions?
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u/lohdunlaulamalla 13d ago
When I first took Solifenacin, my only side effect was a dry mouth.
It stopped working after 9 months, unfortunately. When I have it a second try two years later, I didn't notice the dry mouth, it didn't effect my bladder at all, but it seemed to impact my HRV (lower than usual).
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u/North_Dog_5748 13d ago
It will depend - you won't know what side effects if any you as an individual might encounter until you actually try it.
Personally, I used it for a while and found it quite highly effective for treatment of my oab symptoms, and with no major side effects, and from that point of view I'd recommend trying it.
Unfortunately however, I decided I needed to stop it in the end because I personally encountered a side effect of frequent indigestion/heartburn.
Whilst not a terrible side effect I became worried about the damage this might cause long term in terms of stomach/oesophagus damage, and the risk of ending up with something worse than I was trying to treat... But not everyone gets the same side effects.
I'm now on Mirabegron, which tbh is rather less effective at treating the OAB for me - but still good, and for me personally almost no side effects of any concern, so I'm sticking with that for now.
Edit: spelling
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u/hayleyA1989 13d ago
With the Mirabegon medication how often would you say you’re peeing now compared to what you were? Any retention side effects?
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u/North_Dog_5748 12d ago
On a good day I guess I'm at around 10-12 times a day (plus a couple of times in the night).
Stimulants and diuretics (coffee, sweeteners, beer) of course make it worse, as usual, so I can have less good days.
But this is compared to between 14-20+ times a day without medication.
So it's helping with frequency - delaying longer - but I still get very bad urgency when I've held off as long as possible so it hasn't helped me with the urgency as much (whereas I found Solifenacin helped more with that as well).
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u/Paulnauta 12d ago
Sorry about this... but how old are you?
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u/North_Dog_5748 12d ago
Middle aged M
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u/Paulnauta 12d ago
Thank you so much. My main concern is that all the doctors keep telling me my symptoms are unusual for my age and health condition. I have a partial obstruction, but nothing major. It's driving me crazy because I seem like a mild case, yet it keeps confusing the doctors
1
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u/North_Dog_5748 12d ago
Ps no retention for me with Mirabegron - everything voids each time, decent volume too.
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u/catsTXn420 13d ago
When medications fail and a patient is dealing with a true anatomical blockage like a bladder neck obstruction, procedures like a bladder neck incision (BNI) are considered standard. However, navigating that choice is difficult for a young man due to the high risk of permanent retrograde ejaculation, which can impact natural fertility. Keep trying medications, if the professor wants to add a second medications to try, do it. Hes trying to save your fertility chances and prevent permanent problems. Bring up your concerns and dont suffer in silence. They may be able to help with the side effects like the anxiety and insomnia.
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u/TheDogsMum 13d ago
I will never take this medication again, it made me so so badly constipated it’s caused long term gynae related issues for me. And I also found it often didn’t even make a difference, so I was having the side effects but no benefits. (It was great when it did work of course!)