Has anybody using Prozac for at least a month, have ever had frequent urination and severe bladder irritation as a side effect?

I had been taking Prozac for depression for about 5 years. During this time I suffered with severe painful bladder irritation. I had to go to the bathroom every few minutes. And usually, as soon as I was done going, I felt like I had to go again. I would go, but there was no urine left to go. It hurt to go. It felt like I was urinating acid. There was this
burning pain from the inside of the bladder to the distal end of my urethra. And there were painful contractions. At night I would put ice packs on top of pelvis and vagina area to calm the burning. At the time I didn’t know what was causing it. Through the years, I visited various doctors including an Urologist, a GYN, and General Surgeon. After batteries of diagnostic tests, they all came with the same answer. Nothing.

I don’t know why, but at on point I decided to stop using Prozac. After about 2 weeks after weaning myself out of it, I noticed my bladder was feeling better. After another week, my urinary problem had disappeared. I started then to think that maybe Prozac had something to do with the affliction. So, I started the medicine again. Sure enough, after about a week on it, I started to have frequent urination. By the second week, the same old symptoms started to come back. By the third week, I was starting to have a full blown bladder irritation. I then stopped the drug. In about a week after stopping, my bladder started to feel better again.

In the next few months, I did the “on Prozac, off Prozac” test 4 more times. The results always came out the same. No Prozac, bladder OK. Take Prozac, bladder burns. I am 100% sure Prozac irritates my bladder. I told my doctor about it, but he says he never heard of such thing.

This drug helped me so much through some very rough times. Now, sadly, I had to stop using it.

I recommended it to my daughter, but she also experienced the same difficulty when she started taking it.

Are we the only ones that react to Prozac like this? Why could that be?

Thank you,
Zinia

Hi Zinia

If you look on page 4 of this topic, you can see that other people have experienced bladder problems as well:

Which of these side-effects have bothered you most?

Your reaction does seem very extreme though - it sounds very painful. I have no idea why the Prozac would do that. Maybe someone on here who has a better understanding of the chemistry of these meds could comment?

xx

If you look on page 4 of this topic, you can see that other people have experienced bladder problems as well:

>>>>Thank you for your response.

I may add that this could be something to do specifically with the SRI class of antidepressants, because I began to experience the same symptoms when switched to Paxil, and also Celexa. The only thing is that I quit those as soon as I started the frequent urination stage. I have tried Wellbutrin, Effexor, and others from which I had various side effects, but not the bladder problem.

I hope to hear from anybody who may have suffered symptoms as intense as mine. It's just that I want to be reassured that the whole thing was not all in my head.

Hi Zinia,

I'm so glad I found this post. I've been suffering severe and recurrent bladder infections for the entire time I was on Prozac. I was on it a couple of years ago and had lots of bladder infections then but didn't make the connection. Wasn't on it at all last year and seemed relatively bladder problem free until starting the prozac again in Feb of this year. Spoke to my doc about this, he bluntly said there is no connection, searched the internet and found nothing.

My doc has done blood tests on me and found nothing, but early September I had such a severe bladder infection it put me totally on my back, I decided to come off the Prozac late September for this reason and I'm still suffereing from Bladder problems but I think it's from the original infection. I can't wait to fell normal again now.

I just wish that someone would do some research into this. Your post has made me believe that there is a link and I feel so much better thinking that this is not just in my head as I think my doctor tried to make out.

Hi NickyJa. I am glad you posted, because this is a real side effect of Prozac. I hope other people with the same problem will post also. Maybe then the makers of Prozac will take notice and take action. I for one sure would like to be able to use Prozac again

This post has been edited by zinia: Nov 4 2009, 11:43 AM