Hi, I just wanted to share my story with others as I have been able to find very little information posted on the net from other woman with urethral diverticulum.
I am 44 years old. I have never had a UTI in my life. About 6 weeks ago i felt a strange sensation after peeing and then burning. It got worse as the days went by. I went to my GP who put me on antibiotics although no infection showed up in a pee sample. The pain got worse it was like a terrible heavy period dragging sensation that would keep me awake of a night. I googled my symptoms (as you do) and diagnosed myself with a UD. I saw the GP again and mentioned i think i might have a diverticulum, she went mad at me and told me not to be silly. My pain got so bad i went to Hospital Emergency, they put a catheter in straight away as by that stage my urine flow was getting blocked. I was admitted and had an ultrasound and MRI that diagnosed a Urethral Diverticulum that was so infected with a big abscess within it. I was sent home with a catheter in for 2 weeks to wait for the infection to settle. I needed a urogynacologist because the diverticulum was bulging into the anterior vaginal wall so badly it had almost completely filled in my vaginal space. I found a great URO/GYN AND she removed the catheter last week and i had a cystoscopy a couple of days later so she could see where the diverticulum connects with the urethra because the higher up it is above the sphincter the more dangerous it is for incontinence problems. My diverticulum is a horseshoe shape and is very complicated so she is going to do a marsupialisation until it gets small enough to do a diverticulectomy. The marsupialisation is where they open the diverticulum up into the vagina so when you pee it will also come out your vagina instead of filling up the diverticulum. This only works if the UD opening is below the urethral sphincter otherwise pee will just flow out all the time. My surgery is booked for the 3 June 2011 so I will let you know how i go. I am not sure what the post op recovery is. Hope this helps someone like me, that likes as much info as possible and googles everything!