GynoFiles

Medical Marijuana has recently come to Illinois. It's important, if you are considering the use of Medical Marijuana, to get as much education as possible regarding the facts about marijuana use, and a fairly comprehensive summary is available on the Illinois Department of Public Health websit e.  Conditions that qualify for medical marijuana must be shown to have failed other therapies, and have a scientific basis for recommending this therapy. Generally speaking in gynecology there are few indications for the effective medical use of marijuana. Illinoi s does not have a chronic pain indication, so chronic pelvic pain itself is not a valid reason for medical marijuana prescription in Illinois. Interstitial Cystitis (a bladder pain condition) may qualify. At Women's Health Practice we can evaluate patients for Interstitial Cystitis and treat with available therapies, or review your medical records to establish a new treatment plan. For those with interstitial Cystitis for f...

The immune system is how we ward off infections and those asymptomatic subclinical infections; and is the way your body can at times treat a full blown infection without medication. Thus was born the concept, and now the reality of vaccination medicine. Vaccines treat a variety of infections, and the growing number of conditions we can treat is impressive. Women have longed for and effective vaccine for reducing risks of urinary tract infections (UTIs) . But traditional vaccine development has not worked with UTIs. So the developers have had to get more creative. There is something about the way a bladder infection is caused that has given vaccine developers an idea. Stemming from the idea that it is bacteria that stick to the walls of the bladder that ultimately become the infection, they are trying to develop vaccines that would target the protein of the E.col i bacteria. We generally use shots (i.e. vaccine shot) of substances to stimulate the natural immunity. Now we are trying ...

About 35% of hysterectomies per year are done for chronic pain, about 20% are done for endometriosis, which is the most common cause of chronic pain. Curing endometriosis has the ability to significantly improve the life of women and reduce the numbers of hysterectomies. Women who have endometriosis have much worse pain reactions in general. For instance if you have endometriosis you are more likely to experience pain from kidney and bladder stones than other women, although we do not think endometriosis causes kidney stones. The definition of endometriosis has been fairly straight forward: the presence of endometrial glands and endometrial lining tissue (or the stroma, what the glands grow in) outside the uterine lining where it naturally occurs.We also now know that there is a disruption of pain signals that can cause this But the definition has become more complicated: maybe the person with a spot of endometriosis who has no pain doesn't even really have visible signs of e...

Can pain with urination be a chlamydia infection? Where do you least expect a chlamydia infection? Your elbow, yep, it can be there, your eye, it can be there too. (Actually in the joint of your elbow, but you get the point!) But it's usually in the private parts that you expect. But what you don't expect is not to expect it. In other words, you just have to get tested as often there really are no symptoms at all. For instance with chlamydia infections of the urethra, or the tube coming from the bladder, the symptoms can be painful urination, but it may be no urine pain at all! And actually blood in the urine, called hematuria, usually means a regular bacterial type urinary tract infection. Hematuria, or blood in the urine usually excludes most urinary infections by the chlamydia organism. In fact asymptomatic urethral infections with chlamydia are so common gynos often use pee tests just to test for the infection in you and your partner. And for regular bacteri...

 It is Possible To Have Cranberry Juice Withdrawal?  Cranberry juice will work to hold off or even cure bladder infections but you may not be able to stop! Cranberries contain flavonoids. For years gynos debated as to what about the cranberry juice helped to prevent infections, it was thought that urine became more acidic, but apparently it just causes a slippery wall to the bladder. The E.coli bacteria, which cause most infections, then cannot stick to these slippery walls. This is a great technique for preventing infection, as there is no resistance that develops unlike the resistance we can develop from antibiotic treatments. Taking the cranberry pills, rather than just drinking juice, is better for us, as sometimes the extra fluid can make the symptoms of going more frequently much worse. But then there are relapses, and more chronic infections after chronic cranberry users stop. We have Vitamin C can prevent and treat urinary tract infections. It has been studied in...

Bladder infections, or UTIs Urinary tract infections, have never been exactly thought of as an STD. It is more common for women who are sexually active to have them, but then it’s really thought that it’s your own bacteria that cause these infections. Or more accurately your own bacteria, complicated by 'host' factors such as how healthy you are an things you eat . The most common bug is the E. coli which lives in our gut, and is called normal flora for the bowel. But a recent study of resistant E. coli has revealed an astonishing finding. It is more common for those that live in the same household to both have had resistant infections. This is one of the first pieces of evidence that the infections can be passed from person to person. So, yes, it is true that roommates could share bladder infections!