Loss sensation to urinate

[hove131]

Hello

I had some sexual activity 2 month ago. I had been having nerve pain in my penis for a couple months up to this point. The next day i had many symptoms, one of them being that i lost my normal ability to urinate and my normal ability to feel the urge to urinate.
For example now i wake up in the morning with no urge, i wake up at nights with no urge. Same throughout the day.

The urge that i do have is about 5% of what a normal 100% urge would be. The only times i feel any urge or slight pressure is when my bladder is really full.

I dont understand how those pains i had affected my bladder and my brain to bladder function.

This past year I've had severe nerve issues throughout my body and horrible polyneuropathy as well many other neurological symptoms. Clean spine MRI as well as brain. Currently a year in treating Lyme disease clinically based off my symptoms.

Isn't it more likely i have some pudendal nerve damage? Will this symptom ever resolve?

[Violet M]

Hello Hove,

Was your MRI done since you lost the ability to urinate? If not, you need to ask about having it repeated to rule out cauda equina syndrome which needs to be treated as soon as possible -- a medical emergency. If it's not cauda equina syndrome, then yes, you could ask your doctor about the possibility of pudendal nerve damage, since the pudendal nerve controls one of the urinary sphincters. The pudendal nerve is a peripheral nerve and peripheral nerves can heal, but it will depend on the extent of damage and the cause of the damage. If the damage is caused by lyme disease, it will depend on how early you were able to get treatment for the lyme disease, and whether the treatment turns out to be effective. So, there are a lot of variables involved as to whether it will resolve but I certainly hope so because it would be difficult to live with those symptoms.

If you have access to hyperbaric oxygen, there have been some cases of improvement from lyme disease/neuropathy with hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Based on an article that I cited to my insurance company after my PNE surgery, I was able to get my insurance company to pay for half of it, so if you can find some pubmed articles on the subject it might be worth a try.

Violet

[hove131]

I had my spine MRI while my bladder was messed up. I've had full body neuropathy horribly over a year and I've been clinically treating for Lyme for 10 months. When my bladder signaling messed up 8 weeks ago I wasn't sure what to think. I'm just really scared and not sure if I can ever recover from any of this. The bladder issue really really screwed me up after dealing with my legs and arms and everything else all year. I'm not sure what type of illness could cause something like this honestly. It doesn't feel real. Been such a nightmare

[stephanies]

Hove31,

What parts of your spine were imaged? Did the doctors include your pelvis/sacrum? Also, I have found that different doctor see different things as important on MRIs. Do you know a knowledgeable doctor who may be able to look at your images and give you a second opinion? I am sorry you are going through all this.

Stephanies

[hove131]

My cervical and lumbar. I have fully body horrible neuropathy. It has to be part of it. I believe the sacral nerves are inflamed/damaged causing it. Burning and nerve pain in the genitals as well. My functional doctor is clinically treating me for infection (Lyme disease.) That's what they think is causing everything.

[Violet M]

Hove,

It's reasonable to consider pudendal nerve damage as a possibility but treatment really depends on what caused pudendal neuralgia-type symptoms - what is the underlying cause. If it's nerve damage from lyme disease there aren't a lot of options; however, one I am reading about online is hyperbaric oxygen and it has helped some people.

I did a bit more research and found several articles on hyperbaric oxygen treatment for lyme disease or neuropathic pain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5446542/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8130666/

https://journals.lww.com/jcma/fulltext/ ... ve.10.aspx
The case cited in this article was about someone with lyme disease and included pelvic pain as one of the symptoms.

Are you taking any medications for pain? Have any of them helped?

Violet

[hove131]

Is it possible for the nerve to eventually repair and for me to regain sensation and normal urination? I'm so very depressed over this. Looking for some hope.

[Violet M]

Hello Hove,

I can't say for sure especially since I don't know your exact diagnosis, but peripheral nerves can heal over time. Since this happened only 2 months ago I think there is reason for hope and I think it is reasonable to try seeing a pudendal neuralgia specialist since your pelvic symptoms had an abrupt onset and could be due to pudendal nerve injury. But since there is a possibility it's related to Lyme disease, maybe you could try seeing an infectious disease specialist to see if they have any recommendations too.

Violet