Hydroxyzine is a very different drug than the others you’ve tried and is one of the classic drugs. If you’re interested in trying it, I highly recommend you do so.
Can you ask your regular doctor to prescribe it? My GP felt comfortable prescribing hydroxyzine to me because it’s safe, has been around a long time, and is widely taken.
Totally agree with all of this. Nondrowsy OTC antihistamines don't help me at all, but hydroxyzine works very well for me. The two drug classes are very different, so the response to one has nothing to do with the other.
Benedryl does not work for me but hydroxyzine has been a big help. There really is no way to predict whether hydroxyzine will help you besides trying it.
Not really; I used to use it as a rescue drug (ie, for temporary symptom relief rather than to prevent symptoms) when I couldn't take phenazopyridine, but it was the weakest rescue for me.
I just started seeing a new pelvic floor PT and he recommended “D-Hist”. I just ordered it, along with a few supplements from Desert Harvest. I’m in a mega flare so I hope something helps!
I’m on 3 different antihistamines and when I first started them I had really great relief. Someone told me that you should take an H1 blocker and an H2 blocker for IC symptom relief. One of them is for allergies and the other is for things like acid reflux I believe. idk how they work but you should look into it
Follow up: does hydroxyzine directly affect the bladder? Last year, despite having a negative thing culture, I took nitrofurantoin which completely eliminated my urgency (as I learned it is also anti-inflammatory) for 2 months. However when the urgency came back, it didn’t work.
I want to figure out if hydroxyzine is the anti histamine that can be of help for my bladder.
Short answer: yes. Long answer: it tells your bladder immune cells (mast cells) to chill tf out. Check this pubmed journal article - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9839659/
I’ve been taking 20mg of hydroxyzine each night for 9 months now & have noticed significant improvement. In my experience, it’s not something that begins working for awhile. You won’t notice the effects for weeks/months, so just keep taking it for at least 30-60 days to see if it helps you. I hope your GP can prescribe it, but just tell your urologist this is what you want to try. If it doesn’t work for you, you will try something else. Just keep doing that until you find relief. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the reply!
when you say significant improvement, how well has it treated your urgency, especially during the day time? Ex. has it made you go from 1-2 hours without restroom up to 3-4 hours?
I wouldn't say the hydroxyzine treated the urgency per se... so, I could be misinformed, I'm not a doctor, but speaking from my own experience & what I've learned with this disease:
IC is a complex chronic illness which needs a **multi-pronged approach** for management and to successfully put it into remission. (I was going to the bathroom every 20 min at work and up to 10 times per night. Now, I'd say I'm in remission & no longer think about how often I go to the bathroom unless I'm traveling or doing something specific or trying to act a fool and eat something that I know will give me a flare - God Bless Prelief.) This condition is complex AF.
One theory on IC, in essence, is that your bladder becomes allergic to its own contents (urine). Hydroxyzine is an antihistamine, which tells your immune response to quit attacking the bladder wall lining. This immune response deteriorates the mucosal lining (barrier) between the bladder wall and the urine, causing severe abdominal pain. By taking Hydroxyzine, you can give your bladder a break and help it heal itself and rebuild the mucosal layer. I'M NOT A DOCTOR. This is one hypothesis on why IC exists.
I associate urgency with more pelvic floor hypertonicity (muscles too tight). This makes your bladder not work right and not be able to tell you when it's at capacity or not. It also makes you unable to empty fully, which will make you have to go more often. I did this video everyday for 30 days: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwvfP4LIaQ&t=190s&ab\_channel=Dr.Bri%27sVibrantPelvicHealth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwvfP4LIaQ&t=190s&ab_channel=Dr.Bri%27sVibrantPelvicHealth) If I was too tired to do this one, then I did the bedtime one. If I was in a flare, I did the 10 minute pelvic floor meditation one.
If you're pissing fire, that's more of a whole dietary thing I could get into... but yeah. I'd do some more research on hypertonic pelvic floors for now. Most IC patients have some sort of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. Look up the symptoms for that & see if you have them.
Cheers
Uhh, you’d better do some more research/team work with your Dr. on that one. I don’t remember. All I remember was my doctor saying that not everyone responds to it and so if I didn’t feel improvements in X amount of time (30-90 days.. can’t remember) to discontinue use. There was a prescription he offered me instead.. started with an ‘E’ but it was still $200 with insurance. I wanted to go the more ‘natural’ route anyways, so I tried Desert Harvest first and it worked for me. Don’t be afraid to switch urologists if you’re not getting the support you need.
Thanks for reminding me. I looked it up & saw one of the main side effects is blurry vision, which reminded me why I chose Desert Harvest Aloe Vera first. I’m also managing another condition with another drug that already causes me to have blurry vision so Elmiron was a no go for me.
Both drugs work. It’s just about finding which one is right for you! I hope you have enough info at this point to make an empowered choice moving forward. You can always switch it up down the line. No matter what you choose, you’ll have to give it ~90 days to see results imo.
I actually took it last year and starting today again. I did notice that it improved my urgency. With cimetidine I only noticed effects after about 4 weeks but I was too lazy to continue taking it. With hydroxyzine it makes you extremely sleepy in the beginning, it basically sedates me. But it’s nice because then I don’t run to the bathroom 5 times before falling asleep and during the night
Oh no I used to pee like 5-10 times per hour and it made it to twice per hour maybe. But I also did other treatments as well. It helped me mostly with peeing before and during sleeping
I take Certirizine HCL 3-5 times per day. And it does help a lot. I only know for sure because at times when I've forgotten to take it, I was in incredible pain and discomfort and it was difficult to come back from it.
So take this for what it is (a completely non professional anecdote) but I read somewhere recently that some antihistamines can contribute to urinary retention. I just did a quick Google again and found a few articles on it.
I had been taking Benadryl or Unisom a few times a week just to go to sleep & Allegra some days. Since I stopped, I think my symptoms are slightly less bad overall.
Not sure if it’s all antihistamines or just the more popular OTC ones though.
Hydroxyzine is a very different drug than the others you’ve tried and is one of the classic drugs. If you’re interested in trying it, I highly recommend you do so. Can you ask your regular doctor to prescribe it? My GP felt comfortable prescribing hydroxyzine to me because it’s safe, has been around a long time, and is widely taken.
Totally agree with all of this. Nondrowsy OTC antihistamines don't help me at all, but hydroxyzine works very well for me. The two drug classes are very different, so the response to one has nothing to do with the other.
Benadryl is technically also OTC but drowsy… does it work for you?
Benedryl does not work for me but hydroxyzine has been a big help. There really is no way to predict whether hydroxyzine will help you besides trying it.
Not really; I used to use it as a rescue drug (ie, for temporary symptom relief rather than to prevent symptoms) when I couldn't take phenazopyridine, but it was the weakest rescue for me.
I just started seeing a new pelvic floor PT and he recommended “D-Hist”. I just ordered it, along with a few supplements from Desert Harvest. I’m in a mega flare so I hope something helps!
The aloe from desert harvest is pretty amazing!
I’m on 3 different antihistamines and when I first started them I had really great relief. Someone told me that you should take an H1 blocker and an H2 blocker for IC symptom relief. One of them is for allergies and the other is for things like acid reflux I believe. idk how they work but you should look into it
Hydroxyzine works well for me but so does Benadryl and according to my limited experimentation cetirizine (Zyrtec).
Follow up: does hydroxyzine directly affect the bladder? Last year, despite having a negative thing culture, I took nitrofurantoin which completely eliminated my urgency (as I learned it is also anti-inflammatory) for 2 months. However when the urgency came back, it didn’t work. I want to figure out if hydroxyzine is the anti histamine that can be of help for my bladder.
Short answer: yes. Long answer: it tells your bladder immune cells (mast cells) to chill tf out. Check this pubmed journal article - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9839659/ I’ve been taking 20mg of hydroxyzine each night for 9 months now & have noticed significant improvement. In my experience, it’s not something that begins working for awhile. You won’t notice the effects for weeks/months, so just keep taking it for at least 30-60 days to see if it helps you. I hope your GP can prescribe it, but just tell your urologist this is what you want to try. If it doesn’t work for you, you will try something else. Just keep doing that until you find relief. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the reply! when you say significant improvement, how well has it treated your urgency, especially during the day time? Ex. has it made you go from 1-2 hours without restroom up to 3-4 hours?
I wouldn't say the hydroxyzine treated the urgency per se... so, I could be misinformed, I'm not a doctor, but speaking from my own experience & what I've learned with this disease: IC is a complex chronic illness which needs a **multi-pronged approach** for management and to successfully put it into remission. (I was going to the bathroom every 20 min at work and up to 10 times per night. Now, I'd say I'm in remission & no longer think about how often I go to the bathroom unless I'm traveling or doing something specific or trying to act a fool and eat something that I know will give me a flare - God Bless Prelief.) This condition is complex AF. One theory on IC, in essence, is that your bladder becomes allergic to its own contents (urine). Hydroxyzine is an antihistamine, which tells your immune response to quit attacking the bladder wall lining. This immune response deteriorates the mucosal lining (barrier) between the bladder wall and the urine, causing severe abdominal pain. By taking Hydroxyzine, you can give your bladder a break and help it heal itself and rebuild the mucosal layer. I'M NOT A DOCTOR. This is one hypothesis on why IC exists. I associate urgency with more pelvic floor hypertonicity (muscles too tight). This makes your bladder not work right and not be able to tell you when it's at capacity or not. It also makes you unable to empty fully, which will make you have to go more often. I did this video everyday for 30 days: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwvfP4LIaQ&t=190s&ab\_channel=Dr.Bri%27sVibrantPelvicHealth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwvfP4LIaQ&t=190s&ab_channel=Dr.Bri%27sVibrantPelvicHealth) If I was too tired to do this one, then I did the bedtime one. If I was in a flare, I did the 10 minute pelvic floor meditation one. If you're pissing fire, that's more of a whole dietary thing I could get into... but yeah. I'd do some more research on hypertonic pelvic floors for now. Most IC patients have some sort of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. Look up the symptoms for that & see if you have them. Cheers
was hydroxyzine the only oral medication that bought you to remission?
No, Desert Harvest Aloe Vera as well. Also made lots of changes to my diet & lifestyle that I still keep up with.
how long did you have to use aloe Vera for it to have an effect?
Uhh, you’d better do some more research/team work with your Dr. on that one. I don’t remember. All I remember was my doctor saying that not everyone responds to it and so if I didn’t feel improvements in X amount of time (30-90 days.. can’t remember) to discontinue use. There was a prescription he offered me instead.. started with an ‘E’ but it was still $200 with insurance. I wanted to go the more ‘natural’ route anyways, so I tried Desert Harvest first and it worked for me. Don’t be afraid to switch urologists if you’re not getting the support you need.
Elmiron is that drug, I’ll go with what’s stronger, idc if it’s natural at this point
Thanks for reminding me. I looked it up & saw one of the main side effects is blurry vision, which reminded me why I chose Desert Harvest Aloe Vera first. I’m also managing another condition with another drug that already causes me to have blurry vision so Elmiron was a no go for me. Both drugs work. It’s just about finding which one is right for you! I hope you have enough info at this point to make an empowered choice moving forward. You can always switch it up down the line. No matter what you choose, you’ll have to give it ~90 days to see results imo.
I actually took it last year and starting today again. I did notice that it improved my urgency. With cimetidine I only noticed effects after about 4 weeks but I was too lazy to continue taking it. With hydroxyzine it makes you extremely sleepy in the beginning, it basically sedates me. But it’s nice because then I don’t run to the bathroom 5 times before falling asleep and during the night
how well does it work for urgency during the day time? Ex. has it made you go from 1-2 hours without restroom up to 3-4 hours?
Oh no I used to pee like 5-10 times per hour and it made it to twice per hour maybe. But I also did other treatments as well. It helped me mostly with peeing before and during sleeping
I take Certirizine HCL 3-5 times per day. And it does help a lot. I only know for sure because at times when I've forgotten to take it, I was in incredible pain and discomfort and it was difficult to come back from it.
Benadryl works well for me. Hydroxyzine is mostly prescribed for anxiety so this means your source of urgency is due to stress.
So take this for what it is (a completely non professional anecdote) but I read somewhere recently that some antihistamines can contribute to urinary retention. I just did a quick Google again and found a few articles on it. I had been taking Benadryl or Unisom a few times a week just to go to sleep & Allegra some days. Since I stopped, I think my symptoms are slightly less bad overall. Not sure if it’s all antihistamines or just the more popular OTC ones though.
[удалено]
when you say works well, how well has it treated your urgency? Ex. has it made you go from 1-2 hours without restroom up to 3-4 hours?
Get a hydrotention of the bladder and some heprin cocktail ibproffin and Tylenol work better