Sex and Relationships?

[rosezclark]

I am in a relastionship with a wonderful man, but our relastionship is young. We have known each other for over 8 years but have only been dating for about a year. when we started dating my IC was mild, so mild that I was eating whatever I wanted and made the mistake of stopping my Elmiron:tsk:. About 2 weeks ago my IC came back. I am in pain everyday and even when its not as bad as it could be I still cant bring my self to have sex. We have a very open relationship so he knows what I am going threw, and even goes to the doctor with me. I can tell it really hurts him when I tell him no, or not to touch me or hug on me. I have no desire to be touched...
:confused:part of me thinks maybe I cant be in a relationship because I cant have sex.
We both love each other very much.
How can we make this work?

[massagedoula]

You might get more replies if you posted this in the sex forum instead of the pregnancy one (?)

All 3 times I tried to stop my Elmiron my symptoms returned in about 3 weeks. Once I restarted it, I was able to get down to my baseline symptoms again, which seem worse than yours, since I still had to be strict to the IC diet. Can you just restart the Elmiron? You didn't say why you stopped. But when my symptoms were well controlled, I was able to have sex like "normal" but would have to take a hot shower afterwards to relax my muscles, or wear a heating pad to avoid a big flare. I always got/get a mild flare after sex, but I got used to it. Now that my symptoms are bad again (a mixture of pregnancy and stopping Elmiron, though I am now back on it) I can't have "internal" sex anymore, but we can do what my husband calls "outside sex" which can use hands or oral methods. I hope something like this can work for you.

[rosezclark]

I stopped my Elmiron because I started to feel better. When my IC was really bad it felt like I had a bladder infection 24-7! I fallowed an IC diet and took 300mg of Elmiron everyday for about 8 months, then when I started to feel better I stoped. I have started back on Elmiron but I know it will take along time to work again. Thank you for your advice... and sorry I posted in the wrong forum, Im kinda new to this.:rolleyes:

[funinsun18]

There should be more to your relationship than sex.What will you guys do when your old and both of you can't?
Don't get me wrong I think sex is important for any relationship.I think massagedoula is right you can do other stuff in the mean time.And if he loves you he will stick around.

Hope this helps some