Don't Dismiss Cystitis!

We spoke with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Basri Çakıroğlu, Urology Specialist at Hisar Hospital Intercontinental, about chronic cystitis, which is more common in young and middle-aged women and should not be ignored…

Op. Dr. Çakıroğlu, noting that approximately 20% of women experience cystitis at least once in their lifetime, said: 'Classically, it presents with burning during urination, frequent urination, a constant feeling of needing to urinate, and pain in the groin area. This disease, usually caused by a bacterium (germ), resolves with simple antibiotic treatment when caught early. However, using antibiotics without medical supervision, seeing a doctor from an unrelated specialty instead of consulting a urologist, and even patients attempting to treat themselves pose a major risk for cystitis becoming chronic. When cystitis becomes chronic, the patient may have to learn to live with the disease, because they will experience recurrent cystitis attacks throughout their life. For this reason, one should not think of every case of cystitis as a simple microbial event or a chill. Many patients disregard these complaints or try to get rid of them with a few medications. However, it later turns out that this problem is another disease. By then, it is often too late. The most serious of these diseases is bladder cancer. Bladder cancer sometimes mimics cystitis, and these patients may take antibiotics for months, even years, trying to get over the illness. In addition, there are types of cystitis that have no close connection to germs, and antibiotics have no place in their treatment. When cystitis becomes chronic, the patient cannot leave home, cannot go to the market for shopping, sits in the seat closest to the exit when going to the cinema with friends, a working person leaves a meeting halfway through, and only watches the sea and pool from a distance. Many couples divorce because, since they were not seen and treated by a urology specialist, their sex lives were also adversely affected. Sometimes the disease becomes so chronic that it does not respond to any treatment, and the patient may need to have their bladder removed. For this reason, whenever cystitis is a concern, treatment should be planned by consulting a urology specialist and undergoing the necessary examinations and tests,' he stated.