How do you tell if you are feeling your bladder vs urethra?

[jena55]

I know alot of you talk about urethral pain and things. I luckily don't have pain, but I do often get kind of a "pulsing" feeling in which is what really makes me feel i have to go to the bathroom. It is low, but i dont know if it is coming from the urethra or my bladder or what exactly. It actually seems close to my clitoris if that makes any sense at all. Anyone have a good explanation of how to tell if you are feeling your urethra?

[dg2901]

My bladder pain/pressure/etc I feel in my lower abdomen. Urethal symptoms, well, are in the urethra. Not sure how you could get the two areas confused.
When you state that you feel symptoms close to the clitoris I would have to bet its the urethra you're feeling as these two body parts are extremely close together.

D

[GriffsMommy]

It is hard to explain. Since I have been cathed so many times it makes it easier for me to tell what is my urethral pain and what is bladder pain. My urethra pain is always burning and it's pretty intense. My bladder pain is sometimes burning pain but not as intense as the urethra.

[Want2BPainFree]

We all seem so different. When my bladder acts up I feel almost all of my pain the entire vulvar region. I also get a bloated lower abdomen and some pressure there. I get a feeling sometimes like I have a bowling ball in my pelvis. The burning/stinging/throbbing, is almost always felt in the vulva.

[jjt001]

For me it was also really hard to tell at first. Unlike others, I don't really get what I'd call abdominal pain and discomfort, all of mine is quite low (some people have described their bladder pain as being like menstrual cramps, but mine isn't that way at all). However, I know it's my bladder when it's fairly wide-spread and a little higher or more "inside", my urethra pain seems much more concentrated in one area, right at the urethral opening and surrounding vulvar area, more on the surface.

It actually makes sense that it could be hard to tell the difference, since the urethra is so short (only about 1.5 inches long in women). If you look at a diagram of the body, the bladder is sitting very low and right up against the vaginal wall, with the urethra opening between the clitoris and the vagina. Although all of my pain is gone with Elavil now, when I was flaring the worst EVERYTHING hurt down there. I think there's a lot of possiblity of referred pain, so it can be hard to pinpoint the problem. I really thought I had vulvodynia because everything was so sore, but in looking back I think it was my bladder and urethra pain affecting everything else. Once I got the bladder pain under control I don't feel especially sensitive anywhere else except my urethra and vagina, and that pain has gone away over time since I've been on elavil.

Hope that helps! The pain we feel can be very different based on the individual -- that could be just individual physiology or it could be that we're really suffering from different things that kind of concentrate in the bladder/urethra. I've found that with experience and reading these boards I've been able to pinpoint and define my pain and spasms more clearly. Hopefully you'll be able to find an answer to your pulsing issues soon!