Most probably yes. On my recent visit to my specialist clinic (LUTS Whittington), the head doctor told me that I'm one of the 20% of patients who "hang around", as she put it. This is great news to the majority of you. It means that 80% of chronic UTI patients leave the clinic after long-term high-dose antibiotic treatment, on average within 6-12 months. That means your chances of getting cured are high. The hard part will be finding a medical practitioner who understands the plight of chronic UTIs, and is willing to maintain a personalised regime to help you get better. 

This depends on so many factors, it's impossible to say. The transformative thing to realise is that you're not treating a condition, you are treating you. You may be fortunate, and the condition gets treated quickly because all it needs is a boost of conventional approaches. If you're a harder case, you will need to treat you, and not the condition. Have faith that you will get better eventually. The helpful thing to tell yourself is not that you will get better shortly, or imminently, but that you will get better eventually. Take a look at the pain management page and see which approach can help you.

With difficulty. I don't recommend buying medication off the Internet - at least I never had the courage to do so. You do have to be inventive and find a doctor who is willing to treat you outside of guidelines. The Live UTI Free website is a better resource of finding medical help. 

I have tried three Chinese medicine preparations by three different practitioners, at the beginning, the middle and even most recently on my recovery journey. They haven't worked for me. That is not to say that the concoctions won't work for you. Some people in online forums report successes with Chinese medicine, and my suspicion is that the efficacy of the preparations depend on the state of your gut. 

Of course I have. I have tried almost everything - or at least everything that is available to me within commuter range. What I found most helpful is less the methodology itself, and more the pelvic physiotherapy and massage techniques. With that much inflammation and pain, you are holding enormous muscle tension in your body and pelvic floor - and anything that releases that can only help your symptoms. So think of acupuncture or Reiki treatments more like a whole body therapy. Even a general Thai massage will help. 

This is a drug that gets mentioned a lot in support forums but it was not available to me as part of the treatment regime. The pain management medication I got prescribed is Amitriptyline.

Bladder instillations for IC are another treatment route. The preparation is a liquid 'glue' that helps repair the GAG layer (epithelial lining) in the bladder damaged from inflammation and infection. You tend to have 8 treatments at regular weekly intervals. In the UK, instillation treatment excludes the possibility of antibiotic treatment. It means that you can either be treated with pills or with instillations but not both. When I asked the Clinic and my GP to refer me for Cystistat appointments, I was told that I would have to leave the clinic. That choice triggered extensive research on the efficacy of instillations, of which a lesser known drug called Uracyst (not available here) has the most effectiveness - potentially because it's got the highest contents (2%) of Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate, the crucial ingredient in the GAG layer and the active ingredient in the instillations. The possibility of not returning to the Clinic and the ability to chart my progress was a risk I wasn't willing to take. I would love to hear more about how Cystistat or similar instillations are helping IC patients.

No, but I looked into it. The Reading Urology Partnership offers a UTI vaccine against E.Coli bacteria. If you're responding well to D-Mannose, another E.Coli-focussed supplement, and know for sure that your recurrent/chronic UTIs that are E.Coli-based, you may want to look into the vaccine. As with all vaccines, it can help you prevent future infections, but it won't necessarily help you recover from the embedded one you already have.

Endometriosis is a debilitating condition that causes generalised pelvic pain, and in many cases symptoms similar to interstitial cystitis. Tissues grow outside the womb but because of monthly hormonal changes these tissues act as if they're uterine tissues, growing, responding, 'shedding' in line with the menstrual cycles. Although I'm not a medical doctor, I would say that if you're responding to antibiotic treatment - even on the stop-start-recur basis, you're unlikely to have endometriosis (or its cousin adenomyosis) and instead have a UTI. If you're suffering from severe PMS and heavy periods, as well as from pelvic floor dysfunction such as IC, have it investigated - again with determination and persistence, as it's a condition not easily diagnosed.

The only way to find out is to go to an STI clinic and do a test for all the other gamut of infections. You should do this anyway, to tick all the boxes of the standard tests and settle on your own and most likely diagnosis of culprit causes. 

I will only talk about sex inasmuch as it's not something to abstain from, nor is it something to be pursued as if nothing is happening. You clearly will need to practice good hygiene, and not do anything that causes you additional pain. There is considerable controversy if the male partner should be treated. For example, Angela Kilmartin believes they should be. My copious research (notice a theme here?) suggests that in Poland, Russia and some doctors in the United States treat both partners for potential mycoplasma and even fungal infections. This is where the patriarchal order in the medical profession still has a long way to go. Your relationship will be put through the test, and whether both of you will be treated will depend on an unpredictable combination of determination and open-mindedness from you, your partner and your doctors.

The issue with experimental treatments is cost and efficacy. The three treatments I've recently heard of which are somewhere on the spectrum of the unbelievable and believable are: ozone therapy (probably in the wellness category more than the medical one), Botox injections for overactive bladders and laser/radiotherapy to help restore bladder lining. I have not gone there yet but I'm checking once in a while if these are becoming mainstream.

I haven't tried it yet but it's on my list! I'll keep you posted.